June 22, 2008
Sunday 10:00am WLEX TV Channel 18
It is requested that children under the age of five stay in our nursery
so there will be no distractions during the preaching of the Gospel.
HYMN FOR THE DAY
Revive Thy work, O Lord
Thy mighty arm make bare
Speak with the voice that wakes the dead
And make Thy people hear.
Revive Thy work, O Lord
Create soul-thirst for Thee
And hungering for the Bread of Life
Oh may our spirits be.
Revive Thy work, O Lord
Exalt Thy precious name
And by Thy Holy Ghost divine
Our love for Thee enflame.
Revive Thy work, O Lord
And give refreshing showers
The glory shall be Thine alone
The blessings, Lord, be ours.
(Tune: “Blest Be The Tie” p. 187)
*****
Vacation Bible School is Tuesday – Thursday, from 10:30 – 1:30.
We will leave the church at 11:30 on Thursday to go to Gattitown.
This Saturday (June 28th) the men will meet at 10:00am to move the pews into
the fellowship hall where we will meet during construction.
Birthdays
22nd – Mark Borders 24th – Kristy Burton 24th – David Morris
27th – Paul D. Daniel 27th – Ken Wilson 28th – David Parker
“A soft answer turneth away wrath: but grevious words stir up anger.”
- Proverbs 15:1
THE MAN THE LORD LOOKS FOR
“For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth,
to shew Himself strong in behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward Him.”
- II Chronicles 16:9
These were the words of Hanani, the prophet to King Asa. Asa was one of the
good kings. An army of one million people out of Ethiopia came against him,
and “Asa cried unto the Lord his God and said, Lord, it is nothing with
Thee to help, whether with many, or with them that have no power: help us,
O Lord our God; for we rest on Thee” (II Chron. 14:9). But later, instead
of relying upon the Lord for help, he made a league with the King of Syria
for help, the Lord said through the prophet Hanoni, “Because thou hast
relied on the King of Syria, and not relied on the Lord thy God, therefore
is the host of the King of Syria escaped out of thy hands.”(II Chron.
16:7). And then the prophet tells Asa, “For the eyes of the Lord run
to and fro throughout the whole earth to shew Himself strong in behalf of
those whose heart is perfect before Him.”
The heart that is perfect or complete before Him is the heart that relies
only on Him ….on Him only. The Lord looks all over the earth for that
man, and shews Himself strong in behalf of that man who relies only upon Him.
I want to be the man whose heart is perfect before the Lord.
*****
The “Preaching of Christ” is much more than making frequent use
of His name in our discourses, or even talking of His wondrous love and work
for sinners. The “Preaching of Jesus Christ” is first and foremost
the magnifying of His unique person, and making known of who He is –
the God-man. Second, it is the opening up of His mediatorial office in which
He serves as Prophet, Priest and Potentate. Third, it is the proclamation
of His wondrous redemption. Fourth, it is the enforcing of His claims and
the holding up of the perfect example He left us.
- A. W. Pink
*****
Thomas Adams once said, “Good deeds are such things that no man is saved
for them, nor without them.”
A WORD ABOUT PREDESTINATION
Now, I believe in predestination, yea, even in its jots and tittles. I believe
that the path of a single grain of dust in the March wind is ordained and
settled by a decree which cannot be violated; that every word and thought
of man, every flittering of a sparrow’s wing, every flight of a fly,
the crawling of a beetle, the gliding of a fish in the depth of the sea –
that everything, in fact, is foreknown and foreordained.
But, I do equally believe in the free agency of man, that man acts as he wills,
especially in moral operations – choosing the evil with a will that
is unbiased by anything that comes from God, biased only by his own depravity
of heart and the perverseness of his habits; choosing the right, too, with
perfect freedom, though sacredly guided and led by the Holy Spirit, yet in
such a way that his disposition is trained to choose and prefer the right
and the true, not violently driven in the teeth of his own reluctance; free
in his agency, for the Son of Man has made him free. I believe that man is
as free as if everything were left to chance, and that he is as accountable
as if there were no destiny whatever. Where the two truths meet I do not know,
nor do I want to know. They do not puzzle me, since I have given up my mind
to believing them both.
- C. H. Spurgeon
*****
Why did the dove return to the ark and the raven never return? Because the
raven could live off the dead, decaying animals drowned in the flood. But
the dove could not. It had to return to the ark for its food. The raven represents
the religious man who does not know Christ. He is satisfied with the dead,
rotting works of the flesh. But the true believer must return to Christ his
ark for food. The mark of a true believer is that he is continually coming
to Christ for the same thing! Mercy and grace! He cannot be satisfied with
anything less.
*****
One day a little know preacher named Burns was seen standing on a crowded
sidewalk in Glasgow, tears streaming down his face. When asked why, he said,
“The thud of Christless feet on the road to hell is breaking my heart.”
May our great and gracious God give us a heart that weeps for perishing sinners!
- Pastor Maurice Montgomery