WE GATHER TO WORSHIP Tune: I SING THE MIGHTY POWER OF GOD CM/Double Words by JIM BYRD
1. Thy work of providence O Lord, Has brought us to this place; May Thy great name now be adored, Thou Giver of free grace. ‘Tis not to honor flesh that we Now join our hearts as one; But we have come to worship Thee, Through Jesus Christ Thy Son.
2. Unto our Father praises be, For blessings numberless; For grace from old eternity, Which we in Christ possess. Thou art our hope and confidence, Thou Lamb of Calvary; For by Thy blood and righteousness, We are from sin set free.
3. Thou Holy Spirit, heav’nly Dove, We praise Thee for Thy grace; Because of Thy great pow’r and love, We now the Son embrace. O Sovereign God of earth and sky, This is our one design; Thy precious name to magnify, May all the praise be Thine.
SCRIPTURE READINGS TODAY: MORNING: ROMANS 5:1-11 EVENING: JOHN 4:1-26
THE WORD DWELT AMONG US "And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth" (John 1:14). By "the Word," is intended the second person of the trinity, the Son of God. He is said to be "the Word" for He is the revelation of the person, mind, heart and will of God. Remember that the Savior said to Philip, "He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father" (John 14:9). "Dwelt" means tabernacled, putting us in mind of the tabernacle in the wilderness where the Lord resided with Israel. From the outside, the tabernacle was quite ordinary looking, a plain tent covered with badgers’ skins. The view from within the tabernacle, however, was altogether beautiful and glorious. That tabernacle pictured God Incarnate, with an outward appearance like unto every other man, but within was the shekinah glory of God. What an astounding truth! The eternal God took into union with Himself the nature of man, thereby uniting both in one Person. He became what He was not before, and yet He did not cease to be all that He was before. This union was necessary to save His people from their sins, which could only be accomplished by His substitutionary death and resurrection so that God could be a just God and a Savior. As the Son of God, Christ Jesus had the authority, power, wisdom and grace to save guilty sinners. He fully comprehended the divine attitude toward sin and the requirements of offended justice. As the Son of Man, He could suffer the wrath of God, die as the Representative and Substitute of sinners thereby satisfying the demands of justice for the salvation of the fallen. The Word who dwelt among us reconciled a chosen but sinful people to a holy and just God. None could accomplish such a stupendous work but the God-Man, "the Word made flesh." –Pastor Jim Byrd
"And when the Gentiles heard this, they were glad, and glorified the word of the Lord: and as many as were ordained to eternal life believed." (Acts 13:48)
EXEMPTION FROM CONDEMNATION "There is, therefore, now no condemnation to them who are in Christ Jesus" (Romans 8:1). The freedom of the believer is just what it is declared to be—entire exemption from condemnation. From all which that word of significant and solemn import implies, he is, by his relation to Christ, delivered. Sin does not condemn him, the law does not condemn him, the curse does not condemn him, hell does not condemn him, God does not condemn him. He is under no power from these, beneath whose accumulated and tremendous woe all others wither. A brief and simple argument will, perhaps, be sufficient to establish this fact. The pardon of sin necessarily includes the negation of its condemnatory power. There being no sin legally alleged, there can be no condemnation justly pronounced. Now, by the sacrifice of Christ all the sins of the Church are entirely put away. He, the sinless Lamb of God, took them up and bore them away into a land of oblivion, where even the Divine mind fails to recall them. "How forcible are right words" (Job 6:25). Listen to those which declare this wondrous fact. "I, even I, am He that blotteth out your transgressions for my own sake, and will not remember thy sins" (Isaiah 43:25). "Thou hast cast all my sins behind Thy back" (Isaiah 38:17). "Having forgiven you all trespasses" (Colossians　2:13). "Their sins and iniquities will I remember no more" (Hebrews 10:17). The revoking of the sentence of the law must equally annihilate its condemnatory force. The obedience and death of Christ met the claims of that law, both in its preceptive and punitive character. A single declaration of God’s Word throws a flood of light upon this truth—"Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us" Galatians 3:13). –Octavius Winslow
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