August 28, 2011
Church Websites: lantanagrace.org sermonaudio.com/dleeb
Call to Worship
Peace, true peace had long escaped me,
Screaming conscience would not rest.
With my might I fought against it,
But I fought against my God.
On in darkness did I stumble,
Needing rest but finding strife.
Seeking rest in my deception, calmness in a sinful life.
God in goodness smote my conscience,
Made it scream and cry aloud.
‘Wretched fool you will not prosper,
Unto me your heart must bow’.
But in ignorance on I struggled,
Seeking peace by man made means,
Seeking rest through my vain struggles,
Fighting hard against God’s claims.
Then the burden over whelmed me,
I gave in and died to self;
I need peace I cannot muster,
Peace in One outside myself.
Then and there I saw Immanuel,
Prince of Peace, the Lord of love.
Then sweet peace came to my conscience,
Peace, sweet peace through Jesus’ blood.
By Bruce Crabtree
(Tune: ‘Tis So Sweet to Trust in Jesus’ pg. 257)
As we have opportunity to preach or to witness to someone, it is not God honoring to tell them that God loves them and Christ died for them. The word of God and our Lord Jesus Christ gives us what we are to say, “except ye believe I Am He ye shall die in your sins”. He that believeth on the Son of God hath life; he that believeth not the wrath of God abideth on him."
To be without Christ is to be without God and without hope in this world - again, “God is angry with the wicked everyday”. "Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature, he that believeth and is baptized shall be saved, he that believeth not shall be damned". "Except ye repent ye shall all likewise perish". "God commands all men every where to repent, because he hath appointed a day in which he shall judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained"
This is just a few of the things that sinners need to hear, we must be faithful to tell them that Christ Jesus is the only way God can be
approached and the only one by whom God deals with the sinner. As Scott Richardson said; "God will not be spoken too nor will he speak to any man except through Jesus Christ".
Oh, how I remember the weight of my sins, and God's wrath against my soul, it struck fear to my heart, and I tried to get on God's good side by my works, by my sincerity, but my burden grew heavier instead of lighter. But thank God, someone told me about Christ bearing my sin in his own body on the tree. I thought did he really do that for me?
When God gave me faith to believe on Christ, all the condemnation I felt was taken away, I'll never forget when I found out God wasn't mad at me anymore. What I am saying is this, a soul will feel the weight of sin, before he will know the forgiveness of sin, and he will feel the condemnation of God before he will know the acceptance of God. What about God's elect? No man has any reason to believe he is one of God's elect and one for whom Christ died until he repents and believes on the Lord Jesus Christ. And until that happens all he can expect is the "indignation and wrath of God" against him for their sin and unbelief.
- Pastor
Meetings
Sept.2-4 Grace Baptist Annual Conference, Danville, KY
Don Fortner Pastor
Sept.30-Oct.2 Hurricane Grace Church, Ashland KY
John Chapman Pastor
Oct.21-23- College Grove Grace Church, College Grove, TN
Chris Cunningham Pastor
~~~ O ~~~
Great Plainness
2Cor 3:12 Seeing then that we have such hope, we use great plainness of speech.
I see a lot of men who claim to preach the Gospel of God’s grace in Christ Jesus, involved in a lot of hairsplitting confusion and debating of complicated irrelevancies. Thank God for those who, by His grace and power, preach the clear, plain simplicity that is in Christ Jesus. If little children cannot understand (intellectually) your gospel, then your gospel is worthless. I know that the truth must be revealed by God and that it is unfathomable, but the Gospel our Lord preached, was and is not confusing or hard to understand. Even those who hated it (Him), and were ever learning yet never able to come to a knowledge of the truth, clearly understood what He was saying, though they were spiritually blind. You did not need a lexicon to refer to when our Lord preached. He did not carry a chalk board with Him and scribble diagrams, and chronological charts, or make endless, complex word studies. People are dying and going to Hell while Doctors of Theology are rambling for hours without ever once simply telling anyone how a sinner can be saved by the free grace of God in Christ Jesus. How sad.
- Pastor Chris Cunningham
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