CALL TO WORSHIP

(Tune: "Tis so Sweet to Trust in Jesus")

Great Jehovah, our salvation,

God of mercy and of grace;

Who sent Christ to save His nation,

His dear sheep from every race.

REFRAIN:

How we love Him, Christ our Savior,

He who reigns o'er all to bless

All His people with salvation;

Praise the Lord our righteousness.

There's a peace that knows no ending

In the Savior's loving arms;

With our precious Lord's attending,

Keeping safe from all alarms.

We rejoice in our redemption

Earned by Christ, our Great High Priest,

He who reigns without exemption

Intercedes for us to plead.

Bible Study 10 AM."The Shepherd in the Cause of Christ" 1 Samuel 17:1-34

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: Mary James Fuller - July 8^th.

LORD, OPEN OUR EYES!

Our natural blindness and self-deception is manifested by our wrong estimate of ourselves. Pride and self-righteousness lead us as the Pharisees to "trust in ourselves that we are righteous and despise others." The Lord Jesus Christ issues this command in Revelation 3:18 "anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see." Christ charges them with not being able to see what they think they see. He says "anoint" that you might see! He charges them with being haughty and self-righteous because they say "I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing." Do we imagine ourselves rich and increased with knowledge, faithfulness, understanding, and good works, seeing not our poverty and need? He who knows the heart makes this true evaluation: "Thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked." But that is not all. He says "and knowest not!" Now we know that no one rightly sees or understands or obeys God apart from the anointing work of the Spirit of God. But here Christ lays the responsibility upon us and commands "you anoint." What is the "eyesalve" that He commands us to apply? What will enable us to see God as He really is, we as we really are and the remedy for our poverty and need? It is the Word of God! The Word of God, the Gospel, is the instrument by which the Spirit of God enlightens our understanding, causes us to see the impurity of our hearts and nature, the faultiness of our righteousness, and our inability to do good. It is by the gospel that we see our state so as to look to Christ as all our salvation and acceptance before God. And it is by the Word that we see our present condition as believers. Was it not the Word of the Gospel that showed us our lost state and then revealed Christ to us? The Word will always declare our unchanging state before God in Christ and it also will reveal our present condition and experience. Pride and self-sufficiency always causes our hearts to deceive us. "Anoint your eyes with eyesalve!" Hear the preached Word, read the Word and obey the Word. Christ says, "I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear."

Gary Shepard

The Book of Life

The book of life, or decree of election, is the marriage-register of the saints; in which their everlasting espousal to Christ stands indelibly recorded by the pen of God's free and eternal love. As the gold of which money is made is the king's property ever before it is struck into coin, and before it visibly bears the royal image and superscription; so the unregenerate elect are God's own heritage, though they do not appear to be such, until the Holy Spirit has made them pass through the mint of effectual calling, and actually stamped them into current coin for the kingdom of Heaven. The elect are betrothed to Christ from everlasting in the covenant of grace; they are actually married to Him, and join hands with Him, in conversion; but they are not taken home to the bridegroom's house until death dismisses them from the body.

Augustus Toplady

ALL OF CHRIST AND ALL IN CHRIST

Everything in true Christianity is built upon and centers around Christ crucified and risen again. This is why TRUE Christians cannot and do not differ over how God saves sinners. It is by His free and sovereign grace in the glorious Person of Christ who is God the Son in sinless human flesh (John 1:14), and it is by the work of redemption He accomplished on Calvary to put away our sins by His own precious blood and establish a righteousness whereby God is just to justify ungodly sinners. Christ is the ONE way and the ONLY way of salvation in all its glorious aspects. Not one degree of salvation is left to the sinner's will, goodness, or power. It is all of Christ and all in Christ.