“What is the chaff to the wheat? saith the LORD. Is not My word like as a fire? saith the LORD; and like a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces?” (Jeremiah 23:29) *************************************************************************** WE GATHER FOR WORSHIP TUNE TO “COME THOU FOUNT” 8.7.8.7. double WORDS BY JIM BYRD
1. God of glory, Lord of heaven. Hear Your children as we pray; Bless us with Your gracious presence, As we gather on this day. May the precious name of Jesus, Be adored and magnified; By His sacrifice on Calv’ry, God’s elect were justified.
2. As we gather here for worship, May we meet with one accord; Let our hearts be joined together, Unified to praise the Lord. Speak O Lord in sovereign power, Quicken those still dead in sin; Bring each heart to trust the Savior, Cause Your grace to reign within.
3. Holy Spirit, use Your servant As he sets forth Christ the King; Make Your gospel word effectual, To each heart salvation bring. When this time of worship ceases, And we leave, our homes to go; May the praise of the Redeemer, Fill our hearts to overflow. ________________________________________________________________________ CONGREGATIONAL SCRIPTURE READINGS TODAY: MORNING: PSALM 135:1-13 EVENING: LUKE 5:27-39 ________________________________________________________________________ Daily Readings- September 4-10 Sunday - Ezekiel 18-21 Monday - Ezekiel 22-24 Tuesday - Ezekiel 25-28 Wednesday- Ezekiel 29-32 Thursday - Ezekiel 33-36 Friday - Ezekiel 37-39 Saturday- Ezekiel 40-42 ________________________________________________________________________ WHEN DID GOD SEE THE BLOOD? There has never been a time when the eternal Jehovah did not look to Christ, the Lamb slain, as the ground of all His blessings to and the salvation of His elect. As He said of that earthly people that picture His redeemed, “When I see the blood I will pass over you” (Exodus 12:13). It was not when they saw it but when He saw it! When did God “see” the blood of His Son as the justice-satisfying sacrifice for the sins of His people? “When” really doesn’t apply to God who beholds everything in all of time and eternity with one all-encompassing view. Without a doubt there is a progressive manifestation and revelation of the purpose and will of God’s grace in Christ, but the unchanging God of eternal glory views and always has viewed all His children in Christ. Looking to Christ crucified, He loved them, chose them, established His everlasting covenant concerning them, all with an eye to “the blood.” Looking to this Lamb slain (there being no possibility that He could fail), He could justly bless them even then with “all spiritual blessings.” Christ the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world is Christ the Lamb hanging on the cross and the Lamb John sees in the Revelation as “newly slain.” Christ’s sacrifice for the sins of His people is the “everlasting righteousness” that was brought in or made manifest when He came into the world and died the death of the cross. The great change comes when He enables us to see the blood by faith! When we see the blood, which occurs when the Spirit of God reveals it to us and in us through the gospel of Christ crucified, we change, casting off the rags of our self-righteousness and pleading the blood of Christ as the only way God has and could be just and justify us. We look to this Lamb slain just as God always has! “Being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus” (Romans 3:24). “Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by His own blood He entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us” (Hebrews 9:12). The word “obtained” here means to find, discover, perceive. By His blood (death, sacrifice) Christ entered into the holy place of heaven and we in Him find or perceive this “eternal redemption” sure and accomplished through His blood. His blood is the blood of the everlasting covenant which is “ordered in all things and sure” and this is all the salvation of the people of God! –Pastor Gary Shepard ________________________________________________________________________ THE WORK OF THE SOVEREIGN SPIRIT Believing the gospel is no small thing. The message of salvation altogether by grace conditioned upon the merits and work of the Son of God is offensive to the natural man because it declares the inability of man to save himself. It proclaims that redemption has been obtained, reconciliation has been accomplished and righteousness has been brought in for all of God’s elect by the life, death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. When God the Holy Spirit comes to a spiritually dead sinner, He finds in that poor rebel nothing with which to work. The sinner’s mind is enmity against God, his heart as adamant stone toward the truth and his will set in opposition against the divine will. The Spirit must quicken the dead, break down the rebellion, convince of sin, grant repentance from dead works and faith in Jesus Christ and seal upon the heart and conscience of the newly regenerated sinner that blessed truth that he or she stands accepted before a holy God solely upon the ground of the blood and righteousness of the glorious Redeemer. What but the work of the sovereign Spirit could bring a needy sinner to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ? -- Pastor Jim Byrd
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