CALL TO WORSHIP

(Tune: "Sweet Hour of Prayer")

Jesus, Thy blood and righteousness

My beauty are my glorious dress;

Midst flaming worlds in these arrayed,

With joy shall I lift up my head.

This spotless robe the same appears

When ruined nature sinks in years;

No age can change its glorious hue,

The robe of Christ is ever new.

When from the dust of death I rise,

To join the ransomed in the skies,

E'en then shall this be all my plea,

That Christ has lived and died for me.

O let the dead now hear Thy voice,

Now bid Thy people to rejoice;

Our beauty this, our glorious dress,

Jesus, the Lord our righteousness.

Bible Study: "The Glory of Covenant Love" 1 Samuel 17:55-18:4

TODAY'S SPEAKER: 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: Leigh Ann Flynn - July 27^th. - Jake Jones - July 30^th.

"JUSTICE CANNOT TWICE DEMAND PAYMENT AT MY BLEEDING SURETY'S HAND...AND THEN AGAIN AT MINE" Augustus Toplady

It is an amazing characteristic of grace that the justice of God which once stood against us as sinners alienated from God, now stands for us as those who have been reconciled to God in Christ Jesus. These words of Augustus Toplady ring true to the scriptures. It is the justice of the thrice Holy that stands to guarantee our continued security before the law and throne of God. John tells us that all confessing sinners are cleansed from all sin and that God is "faithful and JUST to forgive us our sins." God's justice demands the forgiveness of all the sins of those for whom Christ died. This because His death for sin actually put away sin by satisfying all that the justice of God required, which was death. "It is Christ that died..." Can justice allow any for whom He died to be condemned? Can justice require payment at the hands of the Substitute and then require it again at the hands of those He represents? NO! This cannot be. Justice that must demand the death of every soul that sins must also demand the full justification of every soul whose sins are made an end of in the dying of Christ. Justice sees all who are in Christ as Christ Himself. Such is the true nature of imputation. All believers are seen by divine justice as being in Christ because they are in Christ! I suppose it could be said that justice is the backbone of grace, giving it strength, applying the full benefits of Christ's work to every object of God's grace. Justice upholds the integrity of God's sovereignty in grace. He will have mercy to whom He will have mercy and be gracious to whom He will be gracious. Someone may rise to say "that's not fair." To which justice immediately replies, "God can do with His own what He will and if He leaves some men to face the consequences of their sin, He is just in doing so. But He must set free every sinner redeemed by Christ's blood because I've been satisfied and honored." Justice found a sweet satisfaction for my sin in the bloody sacrifice of Christ by it also guarantees the liberation, blessing and keeping of my soul because of that blood. God's faithfulness and justice are ever the twin guards that secure forever God's elect.

Gary Shepard - Sovereign Grace Baptist Church - Jacksonville, NC

The One and Only Mediator

But when he <King Uzziah> was strong, his heart was lifted up to his destruction: for he transgressed against the LORD his God, and went into the temple of the LORD to burn incense upon the altar of incense. ¹⁷And Azariah the priest went in after him, and with him fourscore priests of the LORD, that were valiant men: ¹⁸And they withstood Uzziah the king, and said unto him, It appertaineth not unto thee, Uzziah, to burn incense unto the LORD, but to the priests the sons of Aaron, that are consecrated to burn incense: go out of the sanctuary; for thou hast trespassed; neither shall it be for thine honour from the LORD God. 2 Chronicles 26:16-18

Under the Old Covenant Law, God gave specific instructions that only the sons of Aaron, as His appointed priests, were to enter into the sanctuary as a mediator for the people to burn incense. As 2 Chr. 26 continues, we read of the consequence of Uzziah's actions - how God immediately brought leprosy upon the king, resulting in his being outcast as a leper for the remainder of his days. The seriousness of King Uzziah's sinful, prideful action can be found in the fact that the priestly office he dared to fulfill was a foreshadowing of that which only the eternal high priest (the promised Messiah, the God-man) was appointed to fulfill.

Accordingly, anyone who would inject themselves into fulfilling the role that Christ alone was appointed to fulfill, the role that Christ alone was able to fulfill, and that Christ alone did fulfill in His finished work as the "...one mediator between God and men..." (I Tim. 2:5), is in effect thinking and acting in concert with King Uzziah "...when his heart was lifted up to his destruction." As sinners born in darkness, we are unaware of our complicity with Uzziah unless and until God exposes this to us by the light of His Gospel.

Sadly, many persist in imagining that the pivotal issue in their salvation hinges upon that which they do so as to appropriate God's blessing - not solely upon the work of Christ, the one and only Mediator. Even many who profess to be of the Christian faith make no pretense in boldly asserting that Christ's work of mediation (which would more accurately be depicted as a mere attempt at mediation) is ultimately ineffective for most for whom He lived and died. In fact, it is only deemed to be effective for those who rise to the occasion and do something to appropriate that blessing unto themselves (whether it be by the exercise of their faith or something else done by or through them). And in so thinking, men and women manifest King Uzziah's same sinful pride as they presume that the essential work whereby they are reconciled unto God is accomplished by their act of faith - a work performed outside that of God's appointed eternal priest and mediator.

Only the God-man, the Lord Jesus Christ as the one mediator appointed by God could and did do the priestly work of mediation - the work of reconciling lost sinners unto a holy God by offering up the sacrifice of His own humanity in satisfaction to God's law and justice. That is the incense which is a sweet (satisfying) fragrance in the nostrils of God (Eph. 5:1).