Our monthly ladies brunch will be held next Saturday, June 14^th at 10:30 a.m. at Panera Bread in the Ashland Town Center Mall.

God never changes in His affections for His people or His purpose of good toward them. It is for this reason, and no other, that our salvation is sure and certain. Four thousand years of human rebellion did not cause God to abandon His promise of a Substitute to redeem His people; and our few years floundering in this world cannot move Him from His purposed grace toward us. What a comfort! Our salvation is not founded upon the shifting sands of our righteousness, confessions, or faithfulness, but on the bedrock of Divine consistency.

Pastor Gabe Stalnaker

I love to see how sure and certain the purpose of God in redemption truly is. God’s purpose of redemption is so sure that 700 years before Christ was born, Isaiah spoke of the sacrifice of Christ and the effect of Christ’s sacrifice for His people in the past tense. “He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.” (Isaiah 53:3-5)

DO YOU WANT TEARS OR BLOOD SHED FOR YOU?

Many people get very excited when they think they see a ceramic statue that is supposed to be our Lord Jesus crying. Let me be perfectly clear, that statue is an idol that is incapable of activity of any kind (Ps 115:4-7). However, people who are untaught in the Word of God think they have seen a miracle and a sign from God when they think they have seen evidence that the dead statue cried. That kind of so called miracle appeals to their wicked view of the Savior. They think that the Christ died for everyone but He doesn’t know if anyone will accept Him or not. They think the Lord of hosts is so sad and defeated when a sinner refuses His sacrifice that He weeps in sorrow when He is rejected by men. My friend, that is not the God of the Bible. Christ came to save a particular people. He came to “save HIS PEOPLE from their sins” (Matt 1:21, John 17:9). The Lord is not surprised when the disobedient reject Him since they were appointed to that end (I Peter 2:9).

Our Lord did weep over sin. He is not indifferent to sin. Our Lord Jesus wept over the sin and rebellion of Israel (Luke 19:41-44), but those tears DID NOT SAVE ANYONE! The precious liquid that atones for sin and saves God’s elect from their sin is the precious blood of Christ. When Christ shed His precious blood, all of God’s elect were justified (Rom 5:9), redeemed and forgiven (Col 1:14), given peace with God (Col 1:20), sanctified (Heb 10:14), and cleansed from all sin (I John 1:7).

So which would you rather have shed for you, the tears of Christ or the blood of Christ? As for me, I desire the blood because “it is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul” (Lev 17:11).

If the congregation had the preachers view point they might be convinced that Satan is very much at work during every service, using our slumbering eyes, our bladders, our little children, flies and many other means to turn the attention of as many as possible away from Christ in the gospel being preached. That is why we have beds, bathrooms, nurseries, and fly swatters.