July 20, 2008
Sunday 10:00am WLEX TV Channel 18

It is requested that all 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
To Thy presence we repair
Lord, we love to worship there
When within the veil we meet
Christ the Lord, our mercy-seat
Thou, through Him, art reconciled
We, through Him, become Thy child.

Abba, Father! Give us grace
In Thy courts to seek Thy face
While Thy glorious praise is sung
Touch our lips, unloose our tongues
That our joyful souls may bless
Christ the Lord, our righteousness.

While we listen to Thy word
Fill our souls with sovereign love
From Thy house when we return
May our hearts within us burn
And at evening let us say
“We have walked with God today.”

(Tune: “Rock of Ages” p.126)

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Henry Mahan and I will be preaching at the Zebulon Baptist Church in Pikeville this Friday thru Sunday.

Birthdays
20th – Jonathan Carroll 23rd – James Johnson 24th – Brian DuFour
25th – Ellen Willis 26th – James Lynn 26th – Joe McSherry


“Love not sleep, lest thou come to poverty; open thine eyes, and thou shalt be satisfied with bread.” - Proverbs 21:13
Christ said, “All that ever came before Me are thieves and robbers (John 10:8).” Obviously, anybody coming before Him who claimed to be the Messiah was a thief and robber. But He also means that anything that comes before Him in any aspect of salvation is a thief and robber. It is true that God chose me in eternal election, but it is because He saw me in Christ . Nothing comes before Him in redemption. He did not first see my faith before redemption could be applied to me. He redeemed me. He comes first in regeneration. I do not live because I decided to believe. I believe because He gave me life! “For of Him, and through Him, and to Him are all things: to whom be glory forever. Amen (Romans 11:36).”

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&nb sp; The power of God is that ability and strength whereby He can bring to pass whatsoever He pleases, whatsoever His infinite wisdom may direct, and whatsoever the infinite purity of His will may resolve…As holiness is the beauty of all God’s attributes, so power is that which gives life and action to all the perfections of the Divine Nature. How vain would be the eternal counsels, if power did not step in to execute them. Without power His mercy would be but a feeble pity, His promises an empty sound, His threatenings a mere scarecrow. God’s power is like Himself: infinite, eternal, incomprehensible; it can neither be checked, restrained, nor frustrated by the creature
– Stephen Charnock


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”Lord, make me to know mine end, and the measure of my days,
what it is; that I may know how frail I am.” - Psalm 39:4


Here is three-fold request made by David to his Lord:
1. Make me to know MIND END! David’s end and goal was to “awake with Thy likeness,” to “dwell in the house of the Lord forever.” Help me to rest in this hope.
2. Make me to know THE MEASURE OF MY DAYS! How short my days are upon the earth, and how near I am to my goal!
3. Make me to know HOW FRAIL I AM! A good understanding of my frailty and flesh will humble me, make me more thankful for Christ, enable me to be more patient and forgiving with others, and wean me from this world of flesh and materialism. – Pastor Henry Mahan “Well done, thou good and faithful servant.” In the parable of the talents, the master gave five talents to one man, two talents to another, and one talent to another. He expected them to gain by trading during his absence. The one who gained nothing was called a wicked, slothful, and unprofitable servant, who was cast into outer darkness. But the two who gained were both called good and faithful servants. And this is what every believer will hear on judgment day. “Well done thou good and faithful servant….enter thou in to the joy of the Lord.” How can this be? How can God say this to me?! First, because of union with Christ. All who believe are one with Him, so that what He did, they did. The Lord said in John 14:12, “He that believeth on Me, the works that I do shall he do also.” If I am one with Christ, if He is good and faithful, I am too! Secondly, because that which is done by the new nature is good and faithful. As long as I still have the old nature, I see sin in all I do, and to me I do not appear to be “good and faithful.” But God sees that which the new nature that He gave me does, and calls it “good and faithful.” He only calls it what it actually is! Because of the work of Christ for us and in us, every believer will hear, “Well done, thou g ood and faithful servant…enter thou in to the joy of the Lord.”

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THE TWO I’S IN EVERY BELIEVER
The child of God feels evident principles of a different nature and tendency within him. “For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would (Gal. 5:17). So that there are two I’s in every renewed man’s nature. There is the I which serves the law of God (Rom. 7:23). And there is that I which serves the law of sin (Rom 7:23). And painful and humbling as this review is, yet is it a blessed discovery, which can never be made but by the Spirit’s teaching. The carnal, unawakened, unregenrated man knows it not; yea, indeed, it is impossible he should, for he feels it not, remains as he was born, dead in trespasses and sins. So that there is no conflict in his heart. A dead soul can make no opposition to a living body, wholly employed under one form or other, in making provision for the flesh, to fulfill the lusts thereof. It is o nly when by the quickening and regenerating influences of the Holy Ghost, the soul, which by nature is dead in trespasses and sins, is brought forth into life that the warfare begins, and which never ends until the body drops into the grave. – Robert Hawker (1753-1827)