February 10, 2008

Sunday 10:00am WLEX TV Channel 18
Glory be to God the Father
Glory to the blessed Son
Sound aloud the Spirit’s praises
Hail the glorious Three in One.

Glory, honor, praise, and power
To the Lamb be ever paid
Let new blessings ev’ry hour
Rest on His exalted head.

May the grace of Christ our Saviour
And the Father’s boundless love
With the Holy Spirit’s favor
Be upon us from above.

Thus may we abide in union
With each other in the Lord
And possess, in sweet communion
Joy’s which earth cannot afford.

(Tune: “Jesus Calls Us” p. 374)


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Birthdays
10th – Lydia Wilson 13th – Mark Benton 14th – Thomas Wooten
15th – Amber DuFour 16th – Andrea Vincent



“Hatred stirreth up strifes, but love covereth all sins.”
- Proverb 10:12

HYPOCRISY
Hypocrisy is acting. Pretending to be what you are not. A man practices hypocrisy when what he says or does – or does not say or does not do – gives others reason to believe that what he is or does is different from what he really is or really does.

SECONDARY IMPORTANCE?
I have noticed that the main issue that men grapple with over the doctrine of election is not whether or not the Scripture teaches it. Any honesty at all will make a man admit the scriptures do teach this doctrine. What men grapple with is whether or not it is essential to believe this doctrine and preach this doctrine. Most preachers will admit the Bible does teach election, but they relegate it to a doctrine of secondary importance. (Judgment day will reveal the motive behind such actions.) But will the Scriptures support such a position? In Exodus 33:18, Moses said to God, “Show me your glory….” To which God replied, “…I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious.” Paul quotes this in Romans 9 to answer the carnal mind’s objection to election (Romans 9:14-15). According to scripture, God’s glory and election go together. If the glory of God can be thought to be a doctrine of secondary importance, so can the doctrine of election. But we know the glory of God is of primary importance. What does that make God’s electing mercy in Christ?


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“Is it nothing to you, all you who pass by? Behold, and see if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow, which is done unto me, wherewith the Lord hath afflicted me in the day of his fierce anger.”
- Lamentations 1:12
When our Lord suffered, He suffered as no man before or since has ever suffered. It is true that there may have been some who suffered more pain in their deaths than did He; but our Lord’s suffering was much more than the suffering of the flesh. It is written that His SOUL was made an offering for sin. Even the martyrs of old, for all their agonizing, did not suffer as our Lord did when He “bore our sins in His body on the tree.” Another writer put it this way:
“[The martyrs] had the presence of God with them; Christ was under the hidings of His Father’s face. They had the love of God shed abroad in them; He had the wrath of God poured out upon Him. Christ’s prayer (in Gethsemane) shows Him to be in a condition which neither they, nor any mortal creature, were ever in. The human nature of Christ was now, as it were, swallowed up in sorrow, and intent upon nothing but sufferings and death; had nothing in view but the wrath of God, and the curse of the law.” – Pastor Joe Terrell

From our perspective, it generally looks as though the moon has a light of its own. But during an eclipse – when the moon comes between Earth and the sun – the moon is shown for what it is: a dark and dead body. Rather than adding light to the sun, it actually diminishes the sunlight that reaches us. So it is with doctrine. While in its proper position, it shines with a brilliant light or glory. But, just as with the moon, the glory of doctrine is not its own, it is Christ. The proof of this is simple. Let any doctrine occupy a place between Christ and us, and it will “eclipse” the glory of Christ and become a dead and darkening thing to our souls.
Election is a glorious and wonderful doctrine. But its glory is wholly borrowed from Christ. There is no glory in election apart from the fact the “we are chosen in Him…” Predestination has no glory apart from the fact that we are predestined to be conformed to the image of Christ. Redemption viewed by itself becomes nothing more than a point of contention and pride. Arguments arise over its extent and scope. But, when we understand that we have redemption in Christ, even more, that Christ IS our redemption, then all arguments over its extent and scope are silenced and a glorious, God-honoring, soul-comforting truth appears: that every blood-bought sinner IS redeemed by a redemption that cannot be undone. And so the principle applies to every truth: until truth is seen in its proper relation to Christ, it is a dead and dark thing. But when it is viewed in proper relation to Christ, it shines with His glory and reveals His glory to us. – Pastor Joe Terrell