O, God, my heart is fixed on Thee, to sing and give Thee praise;
I’ll praise Thee, Lord, among Thy saints, as we our anthems raise.
As we our anthems raise; as we our anthems raise.
I’ll praise Thee, Lord, among Thy saints, as we our anthems raise.
I’ll praise Thee for Thy mercy great, that reaches down to me
In Christ my Savior, I am blessed with all salvation free.
With all salvation free; with all salvation free.
In Christ my Savior, I am blessed with all salvation free.
I’ll praise Thee for Thy righteousness as sent from Thee above;
Thy law and justice satisfied in union with Thy love.
In union with Thy love; in union with Thy love;
Thy law and justice satisfied in union with Thy love.
I’ll praise Thee for Thy cleansing Word that sanctifies my soul;
As in my heart Thou art glorified in Christ who makes me whole;
In Christ who makes me whole; in Christ who makes me whole;
As in my Thou art glorified in Christ who makes me whole.
Today’s Speaker: Brother Randy Wages will conduct the 11:00 am service today. Pray for him as he delivers God’s word.
Television Broadcast: Our Reign of Grace Television program is being broadcast every Sunday morning on WALB-TV @ 9 AM. It’s also broadcast on WFXL Fox 31, Channel 4 @ 11 AM on Sunday mornings.
Radio Broadcast: Sunday morning at 10:30 am on Mix 107.7 FM
Web Sites: Visit our web sites at: Reign of Grace: www.rofgrace.com
We often hear men talk about how valuable we are to God. The truth is this – There is no value or worth in any of us in our sins. The value of the human soul to God has nothing to do with what we are or what we are worth in and of ourselves. It has nothing to do with what we can produce as to our works and efforts to please God. The only value we have to God is what He makes of us in Christ by His free and sovereign grace. The value lies not in us but in the praise of the glory of God’s grace and the exaltation of Christ in Whom we stand and live by His power and grace. The precious blood of Christ, which was the cost of our redemption, proves the infinite value and worth of God’s glory and how much He loves His people in and by Christ. But it proves nothing of our inherent value and worth. The moment sinful man begins to think of himself as some universal treasure without which God cannot be complete or happy is the moment of supreme arrogance, self-love, and self-righteousness on the part of man. Always remember – God is still God without us, but we are nothing, less than nothing, without Him. “For IN HIM dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily. And ye are complete IN HIM, which is the head of all principality and power:” (Col. 2:9-10)
--- Pastor Bill Parker
We know that the matter that brought our total fall in Adam had to do with God's right to be God. Therefore, any gospel that does not deal first with the sovereignty of God is no gospel at all. What difference does it make if God is holy or just or righteous or gracious or merciful, if He's not sovereign and almighty in power over all? No difference at all. BUT, if He is sovereign over all persons and all things, it makes all the difference in the world! If He is the "one with whom we have to do," then the first thing we must be confronted with is His right and ability to do it. His threats and His promises are only good if He can back them up. He can. Bow down and confess His sovereignty in the Tree He has now set forth, theLORD Jesus Christ.
"All hail the power of Jesus name, let angels prostrate fall;
Bring forth the royal diadem and crown Him Lord of all!"
--- PastorGary Shepard
Spiritual Blessings in Christ
"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ." (Ephesians 1:3)
Now friends, look where the blessing is: "Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus." (Rom. 3:24) Our justification by grace and acceptance with God is only to be found where it is treasured up – in Christ. You cannot find it in yourselves. It has pleased the Father that in the Lord Jesus Christ all fullness should dwell for every poor, sensible soul who is brought by God the Spirit to confess his guilt and misery, feel his need, and have earnest desires, hungerings and thirstings after Christ's justifying righteousness. The Lord brings his people to know that in his solemn presence they are altogether as an unclean thing, and that all their doings and righteousness are as filthy rags. (Isa. 64:6) They find that when they would do good evil is present with them; that the good they would they do not, while the evil they would not that they do.
So that the poor soul who is brought more and more to feel his own evils, and to see that he has nothing in self to glory in, but that he is as an unclean thing before the Lord, will be led by the Holy Spirit to discover that his justification and acceptance is treasured up in a precious Christ; and he will burst out in the language of the church of old, "Surely shall one say, in the Lord have I righteousness and strength;" (Isa. 45:24) and again, "In the Lord shall all the seed of Israel be justified and shall glory." (Isa. 45:25) Our justification, our acceptance and our glory before a holy God is in the Lord Jesus Christ. Boasting is excluded on every side. Hence the apostle says, "To declare at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him who believes in Jesus. Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? of works? No, but by the law of faith." (Rom. 3:26,27)
This is the way, my friends, whereby we are considered just and accepted in Jesus Christ. "Be it known unto you, therefore, men and brethren, that through this Man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins; and by him all that believe are justified from all things, from which you could not be justified by the law of Moses." (Acts 13:38,39) The righteousness of Christ is imputed to the poor sinner. "Blessed is the man unto whom the Lord imputes not iniquity." (Ps. 32:2) The poor sinner's unrighteousness is washed away in the atoning blood of the Lamb; he is constituted righteous in the Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my friends, as we stand on the Rock of Ages, sin is done away; we are clad in the Redeemer's righteousness, and stand complete and accepted in the sight of Jehovah. But it is in Christ, my friends. And blessed be God that it is there.