February 3, 2008
Sunday 10:00am WLEX TV Channel 18
God of eternity, Help us to honor Thee!
Help while we sing!
Now may the clouds of night, Break into splendor bright,
Jesus, our life and light, Our Lord and King.
God of eternity, Glorious in majesty,
Author of praise;
Hear Thou our earnest call, While at Thy feet we fall,
Jesus, our all in all, Our Lord and King.
God of eternity, Strength of the mighty hills,
All pow’r is Thine;
Boundless Thy reign shall be, Wondrous Thy victory,
Earth shall be filled with Thee, Our Lord and King.
God of eternity, God of the earth and sea,
Thee we proclaim;
Love through Thine only Son, Thy work of grace hath done,
O blessed Three in One, Our Lord and King.
(Tune: “Come, Thou, Almighty King” p. 6)
*****
Henry Mahan’s commentaries have been republished in three hard back volumes.
If there are ten people who wish to purchase a set, a discount is given for
the price of $70.00 per set.
Birthdays
3rd – James Carver 4th – Stan Warta
7th – Clark Grubb 7th – Faith Hacker
“Most men will proclaim everyone his own goodness; but a faithful man,
who can find?” - Proverb 20:6
James said, “My brethren, have not the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ,
the Lord of glory, with respect of persons” (James 2:1). Genuine faith
in Christ will cause us to not show favoritism toward certain people. It will
also cause us to not do the opposite of that. Faith in Christ teaches us that
all men in and of themselves are nothing but sinful, weak flesh. In the church
of Christ, everybody is a nobody and Christ is All. But faith in Christ also
teaches us to value and respect all men, and to see every believer as special
and unique. They are children of God! Truly, in the Kingdom of God there is
no room for respect of persons. In the church, everybody is a nobody, and everybody
is a somebody.
*****
NO CHOICE
“Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you” - John 15:16
To choose is to decide between two or more options. If God has revealed to you
your utter blackness, contempt, and enmity against Him…that there truly
is none righteous, none that do good, no not one…then there is nothing
to choose between. The righteousness and shed blood of Christ is your only hope
of salvation, and you will have no choice but to turn to Christ for the salvation
of your soul. You cannot choose when there is only one way of salvation….He
chooses you, and leaves you no choice but to trust Christ alone. – Brian
DuFour
*****
The regenerate man is disposed to work for God; the man that has the Spirit
of God is capable of working: he that has the grace of Christ and strength from
Him, can work well: he that believes in Christ works in a right way; he that
loves Christ freely, and from a right principle, and he that has Christ’s
glory in view works to the right end.
- John Gill
“Faith is to believe what you do not yet see; the reward for this faith
is to see what you believe.” - Augustine
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. –
Copied
“Lord, make us as ready to believe as You are to pardon!”
- Pastor Joe Terrell
Salvation is a process having its roots in the timeless eternity of God’s
existence and bearing fruit throughout history and into the unending eternity
of the heavenly existence of God’s saints. At various points in time,
God has brought to pass various aspects of His grand work of the salvation of
His people. Some of the aspects of God’s salvation have double and multiple
fulfillments. For example, regeneration may be a singular event, but conversion
is a life-long process of transforming and renewing the mind (way of thinking).
Even redemption is a multifaceted event. The payment of the redemption price
was made once for all by the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus. But redemption involves
more than merely paying a price; it also involves taking possession of the redeemed
property. Therefore, it would be entirely appropriate to consider the Spirit’s
call by the Gospel to be an act of redemption, for in such a call God takes
possession of the redeemed property. Such a call is also part and parcel of
our redemption in as much as it is the actual loosing of the bonds of slavery
to the law, sin, and death. But there is even more to redemption than this,
for in Romans 8 Paul speaks of our being delivered from the bondage of corruption
into the glorious liberty of the sons of God, which he calls our adoption and
the redemption of our bodies.
And what of justification? It might suit our desire for a neat and orderly theology
to assume that justification is a singular event, but such a thought does not
square with the Scriptures, for they speak of justification as happening on
many occasions. To justify means to declare righteous. Since justification is
by God, it is as eternal as He is. Justification is also the experience of each
of the elect of God when he first believes the Gospel, and it is also his experience
on every occasion when his sin is brought to his attention, and he pleads the
blood of Christ upon it. Furthermore, every one of the Lord’s elect shall
be justified in that great day when God’s appointed day of judgment by
Jesus Christ arrives and all his elect are declared righteous in His sight.
Many needless heresies, quarrels and controversies can be avoided by remembering
that God’s grace has many facets, and each glorious facet appears in its
own time. It is much more enjoyable to sit and gaze on the “manifold wisdom
of God” in the various workings of grace than to sit in judgment on such
works as to whether they fit well into our apprehension of the form they should
take or schedule by which they should arrive. – Pastor Joe Terrell