I am preaching today, tonight, and this Wednesday night at Thirteenth Street Baptist Church in Ashland, KY. Debbie and I will return to Albany this coming Friday and be here for services on March 22. – The Pastor
REMINDER
We will serve THE LORD’S SUPPER NEXT SUNDAY, MARCH 22, and have a covered-dish dinner in our fellowship hall after the services. Plan now to attend.
----------0----------
Our afflictions are light, when compared with what we really deserve. They are light, when compared with the sufferings of the Lord Jesus. But perhaps their real lightness is best seen, by comparing them with the weight of glory which is awaiting us! “For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory; while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal” (2 Corinthians 4:17-18). – Arthur Pink
----------0----------
If we could peer into heaven and see that great number of departed and glorified saints, I think we would see Abraham and his nephew Lot, Joshua and Rahab the harlot, Samuel and Samson, the penitent thief and the glorious Apostle Paul, ALL dressed in the very same raiment – that beautiful garment of salvation, the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ which was freely given them (Isa. 61:10). After all, nothing less will make a sinner accepted in God's sight and qualified for heaven! What more is there? Can anything be added to the righteousness of Christ? Can anything make a sinner more approved of God? The Lord Jesus Christ is ALLthe believer's justifying righteousness (1 Cor. 1:30; 2 Cor. 5:21). -- Copied
----------0----------
“So great is the depravity of unregenerate man that, although there is nothing that he needs more than the Gospel, there is nothing that he desires less.” Thank God for the power of the Holy Spirit Who makes us willing to flee to Christ for all salvation! -- Copied
“OH! PRECIOUS IS THE FLOW”
“But if we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin” (1 John 1:7). As the word “cleanseth” in the King James Version shows us, the blood of Jesus Christ has a continual and effectual efficacy on behalf of those it was shed for. The “blood” is used to signify the sacrificial death of Christ on the cross. This blood “washed away” their sin in the sense that it satisfied God’s justice in the matter of their sin and paid the price required to redeem them from their sins. That once-for-all payment for the sins of God’s elect was a payment in full, and it thus erased or washed away that sin debt. The efficacy of that one sacrifice for their sins is “forever.” Have those Christ died for sinned? Yes, but His blood has cleansed them from those sins. Are they presently sinning while in this flesh? Yes, but His blood is cleansing them for these sins. Will they sin in the future? Yes, but this blood will cleanse them from those sins also. His substitutionary and justice-satisfying death has assured their eternal salvation from sin. This is the reason Christ came into the world and died for them, to save them from their sins. When John saw the Lamb in the Revelation, he described it as “newly slain.” Christ’s work of redemption is to be viewed by faith as a finished work, but it is also seen as a fresh work. He is always the One who is “mighty to save.” What comfort this word declares to those who know themselves to be sinners before God when conscience troubles amidst Satan’s accusations! The blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth US from ALL sin. Not some sin or even most sin but all sin! It has, it is, and it shall! Our shame turns in to song, “Thou hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation;” (Rev. 5:9). Christ has “by Himself purged us from our sins,” and they can never be brought up against us or laid to our charge again. If He made them His own, then they are not my own! This continual cleansing makes for continual good news. Let me “walk in the light” of the gospel of the crucified Christ daily. Let me sing the song of redemption by the blood of the Lamb. “For my cleansing this I see—Nothing but the blood of Jesus! For my pardon this my plea—Nothing but the blood of Jesus! Oh! precious is the flow, That makes me white as snow; No other fount I know, Nothing but the blood of Jesus!”