CALL TO WORSHIP

(Tune: How Firm A Foundation)

Thy mercy, my God, is the theme of my song,

The joy of my heart & the boast of my ton­gue;

Thy grace, so free, from the 1st to the last,

Has won my affections and bound my soul fast.

Thy mercy in Jesus has saved me from hell;

Its glories to sing & its wonders to tell;

Twas Christ my Redeemer who hung on the tree,

That opened the fountain of mercy for me.

Great Father of mercies, Thy goodness I own,

And the covenant love of Thy crucified Son;

All praise to Thy Spirit; His calling Di­vine,

Makes wisdom & pardon & righteousness mine.

Secure in Christ Jesus, no power can shake;

The foundation is laid, & it never can break;

With God justified, our salvation to bless,

Today’s Speaker: Brother Winston Pannell will conduct the 11:00 am service today. Pray for him as he delivers God’s word.

Looking ahead: Pastor Bill Parker will be our guest speaker on Jan. 9^th

Television Broadcast: Our Reign of Grace Television program is being broadcast on WFXL Fox 31, Channel 4. The program will air every Sunday morning at 11 AM. Pray that God will use it for His glory.

Web Sites: Visit our newly designed web site at: www.rofgrace.com

Also visit us at: www.Sermonaudio.com\reignofgrace

Wedding: This coming January 8, Pastor Bill Parker will officiate the wedding of Alisha Casey Jackson and John Kinne Pedersen here at the church at 4pm. All members of Eager Avenue Church are invited by Alisha and John to attend this glad occasion.

Birthdays: Jordan Drake – Jan. 5^th , William Sparks III – Jan. 4^th

But God be thanked, that ye were the servants of sin, but ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you. ¹⁸Being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness.

(Rom 6:17-18)

Prior to God regenerating his elect, we were all servants of sin and under the dominion of sin. Most people automatically go to outward immoral acts when they think of being a servant of sin, and those things are sin, but those things are all products of a selfish sin nature that all men are born with, a nature inherited from Adam. A nature or principal that is full of self righteousness and religious pride. What did Adam do when he knew that God had discovered his sin of disobedience? He selfishly made himself a fig leaf covering in an attempt to hide his sin; he became a servant of sin. Anyone who does not know the true and living God worships a god of their imagination. A God that will save them if they will just straightened up their act and started living right, and the living right standard changes according to what religion they were brought up in, or what their mother and father taught them. It says here “that ye were the servants of sin”. Then it says “but ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you”. This speaks of God calling His elect by the preaching of the gospel, which is “that form of doctrine which was delivered you”. The gospel of how God saves a sinner based on the imputed righteousness of Christ and that alone. God, in time and in each successive generation, delivers the gospel message to that sinner, and God the Holy Spirit having regenerated the sinner causing the sinner to believe the gospel and flee to Christ alone for all of salvation. The sinner will then and only then “obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you”. This is when Gods elect, His sheep, all those that God the father give to Christ in eternity, and that Christ redeemed at the cross; this is when the elect of God became free from sin in their own mind, conscious and experience. It says in Rom 6:18 ¹⁸Being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness. When God brings us from darkness to light, when He opens our blind eyes and reveals Himself to His elect, we’re then free from that sin that deceived us and kept us going about to establish a righteousness of our own. We then “became the servants of righteousness”. When God performs this miraculous work of grace in the hearts of His elect, they are able to serve Him in “obedience unto righteousness”. They are then able to behold God as He is “a just God and a Savior”. A God that is right and just when He saves sinners based on the blood and righteousness of Christ.

--- Jim Casey

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).