MARCH 1, 2015

CALL TO WORSHIP
(Tune: “O God, Our Help in Ages Past,” – p. 10)
(Words by Pastor Jim Byrd)

Today we gather in this house,
To feast on things divine;
To worship Jesus Christ the Lord
In whom all glories shine.

Today poor sinners come to hear,
The gospel of free grace;
Of how our sovereign God decreed,
To save a chosen race.

Today we gather round the Word,
With joy and thankfulness;
To learn again the wondrous truth,
Of Christ our Righteousness.

Today we come with hungry souls,
To feed on Christ our Lord;
For by the Savior’s sacrifice,
The guilty were restored.

Today we gather in this place,
To hear the joyful sound;
That when we come to God through Christ,
Acceptance shall be found.

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Today: Bible Classes – 10:00 a.m.; Morning Worship – 11:00 a.m.
Messages by Pastor Bill Parker

Television Broadcast: Reign of Grace Television
Sunday morning on WALB-TV @ 9 AM.

Live Streaming – 10:00 and 11:00 a.m. service from Sermon Audio web site

Web Sites: Reign of Grace: www.rofgrace.com
Sermon Audio: www.Sermonaudio.com\reignofgrace

Birthdays: Timothy Pannell – Mar. 6^th

CHRIST MUST BE ALL!

We cannot keep our eye too exclusively or too intently fixed upon Jesus. All salvation is in Him. All salvation proceeds from Him. All salvation leads to Him. And for the assurance and comfort of our salvation we are to repose believingly and entirely on Him. Christ must be all! Christ the beginning – Christ the center – Christ the end.

Oh, sweet truth to you who are sensible of your poverty, vileness, and insufficiency, and of the ten thousand flaws and failures of which, perhaps, no one is cognizant but God and your own soul! Oh, to turn and rest in Christ – a full Christ – a loving Christ – a tender Christ, whose heart’s love never chills, from whose eyes dart no reproof, from whose lips breathes no sentence of condemnation! Christ must be all!

-- Octavius Winslow (1808-1878)

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If our acceptance with God depended on anything in ourselves, we would have to believe we might be children of God today and children of the devil tomorrow! What, then, is to keep us from sinking altogether into despair, without hope or help? Why, a knowledge of our acceptance “In the Beloved,” independent of everything in us – good or bad! “And ye are complete in Him” (Colossians 2:10). – J. C. Philpot

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In His death for the sins of His people, Jesus Christ brought forth an everlasting righteousness enabling God to be both a just God and a Savior, a righteous Judge as well as a merciful, loving Father. His righteousness is given by God to His people in the same way that their sins were made to be His – by imputation (2 Cor. 5:21). This is a legal accounting of the merits of Christ’s righteousness to the elect and their sins to Christ. All the agony and suffering unto death Jesus Christ experienced on the cross was due to the sins of His people imputed to Him. All blessings of salvation, spiritual life, and final glory God’s elect gain and experience are due to the righteousness of Jesus Christ imputed to them. The sins of His people imputed to Him and the suffering He experienced were all necessary for the salvation of His people. The righteousness of Christ imputed to His people and the blessings of spiritual life in the new birth and glory in heaven are all necessary for the salvation of His people.

– Pastor Bill Parker

THE MAIN RULE FOR INTERPRETING SCRIPTURE

A sister in Christ asked, “What are the rules for interpreting scripture? I have heard this mentioned in passing, and have heard ‘the law of first mention’ used a couple of times and explained, but I'm sure there are more that I should be aware of and using. Correct info and guidance would be appreciated.” Many of you may have the same question, and there are several rules people should go by when studying the Word of God. There are rules language, context, comparison, and the rule of first mention, but the main rule for Scriptural interpretation is the truth of JESUS CHRIST AND HIM CRUCIFIED, AND THE GOSPEL OF GOD’S GRACE IN THE SALVATION OF SINNERS BASED EXCLUSIVELY UPON CHRIST’S SHED BLOOD AND RIGHTEOUSNESS IMPUTED. This was stated by our Lord – “Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of Me” (John 5:39).

Not all verses in the Bible state the Gospel of God’s grace in Christ Jesus (His glorious Person and His effectual finished work of redemption) explic­itly. But every passage, even every verse, is to be read, interpreted, and understood in light of the truth of Jesus Christ, crucified, and risen from the dead to establish righteousness by which God is just to justify the ungodly (Luke 24:27, 44-48). Until the Holy Spirit brings us to see this grand and glorious truth, the Bible is a closed book to us. Consider what the Apostle Paul wrote to the Corinthian church concerning unbelieving Israel under the Old Covenant law –

“Seeing then that we have such hope, we use great plainness of speech: And not as Moses, which put a vail over his face, that the children of Israel could not stedfastly look to the end of that which is abolished: But their minds were blinded: for until this day remaineth the same vail untaken away in the reading of the Old Testament; WHICH VAIL IS DONE AWAY IN CHRIST. But even unto this day, when Moses is read, the vail is upon their heart. NEVERTHELESS WHEN IT SHALL TURN TO THE LORD, THE VAIL SHALL BE TAKEN AWAY.” (2 Corinthians 3:12-16)