December 23, 2007
Sunday 10:00am WLEX TV Channel 18

Where God begins His gracious work
That work He will complete
For ‘round the objects of His love
All power and mercy meet. (Repeat)

Man may repent him of his work
And fail in his intent
God is above the power of change
And never can repent. (Repent)

Each object of His love is sure
To reach the heavenly goal
For neither sin nor Satan can
Destroy the blood-washed soul. (Repeat)

The precious blood of God’s dear Son
Shall ne’er be shed in vain
The soul on Christ believing must
With Christ forever reign. (Repeat)

(Tune: “Majestic Sweetness” p. 52 )


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We will have a New Year’s Eve Service Monday the 31st beginning at 8:00pm. We will observe the Lord’s Table at the close of the service. Bring a dish and we will eat together afterwards. There will be no evening service on Sunday the 30th or Wednesday the 2nd.


We extend our sympathies to James Lynn and his family on the death of his Grandmother this past week.


Birthdays
25th – Paul E. Daniel 25th – Joyce McSherry 26th – Sherry Borders
26th – Paul Walmsley 29th – Amanda Frye
29th – Alan Kincer 30th – Will Hands

“It is the glory of God to conceal a thing: but the honour of kings is to search out a matter.” - Proverb 25:2

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HOW I LOVE THE LAW!
“If thou meet thine enemy’s ox or his ass going astray, thou shalt surely bring it back to him again.” (Exodus 23:4)
How beautiful is God’s law that requires such treatment to our enemies. God’s law reflects the character of God Himself. “He maketh His sun to rise upon the evil and the good, and sendeth rain upon the just and the unjust” (Matt. 5:45). In reading through Exodus 21-23, God’s law regarding how we are to treat our fellow man, we are struck with the impartial justice, the fairness, and the mercy of God. Truly, His holy law reflects His holy character. And His holy law reflects the character of man. How evil must men be that makes such laws necessary in the first place! Remember, “The law is not made for a righteous man, but for the lawless and disobedient” (I Tim. 1:9).
Truly, we “delight in the law of God after the inward man.” The law reflects God’s beautiful character, our sinful character, and shows us our need of Christ, and is our school-master to bring us to Christ. Every believer stands righteous before the law and is not under the law. So every believer can say with conviction, “Oh, how I love Thou law!” (Psalm 119:97).
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THE TWO NATURES OF EVERY BELIEVER
Every believer has two separate, distinct, and opposite natures – one is perfectly holy, and one is perfectly sinful.
This is put forth plainly in scripture – “There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body” (I Cor. 15:44). So then, if I carry out an act of kindness towards my brother or sister in Christ, which nature, or which man has carried it out? Both. The motive behind the act is of the new man, a holy motive, out of perfect love to God – but in putting the motive into action, it is carried out by the old man, a sinner, and therefore sinful.
So in the one same act, we have the pure motive of love from the new man, and a sinful action in it’s carrying out by the old man. The scriptures once again put this forth plainly – “I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind (the motive of the new man) I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh (the actions of the old man) the law of sin” (Romans 7:25). – Brian DuFour

PARTICULAR REDEMPTION
Some insist upon it that men are redeemed not because Christ died, but because they are willing to give efficacy to the blood of Christ. He died for everybody according to their theory. Why, then, are not all men saved? Because all men will not believe? That is to say that believing is necessary in order to make the blood of Christ efficacious for redemption. Now we hold that to be a great lie. We believe the very contrary, namely, that the blood of Christ has in itself the power to redeem and that it does redeem and that faith does not give efficacy to the blood, but is only the proof that the blood has redeemed that man. Hence we hold that Christ did not redeem every man, but only redeemed those men who will ultimately attain unto eternal life. We do not believe that He redeemed the damned; we do not believe that He poured out His life blood for souls already in hell. We never can imagine that Christ suffered in the room and stead of all men, and that then afterwards these same men have to suffer for themselves, that in fact Christ pays their debts, and then God makes them pay their debts over again. We think that the doctrine that men by their wills give efficacy to the blood of Christ is derogatory to the Lord Jesus, and we rather hold to this that He laid down His life for His sheep, and that His laying down His life for the sheep involved and secured the salvation of every one of them. We believe this because we hold that - “Of Him, and through Him, and to Him are all things.” - C. H. Spurgeon


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THE CAUSE OF COMPROMISE
The only reason that a man would compromise in any of what we call the “doctrines of grace” is that he really has no love for Christ. I am sure other reasons are given, but they are not valid. Judgment day will reveal whether or not this is true.


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Faith is not an achievement; it is a gift. Yet it comes only through the hearing and study of the Word. –Martin Luther