December 28, 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 OF THE DAY
Revive Thy work, O Lord
Create soul-thirst for Thee
And hung’ring for the Word of life
O may our spirits be!

Revive Thy work, O Lord
Exalt Thy precious name
And by the Holy Ghost our love
For Thee and Thine inflame.

Revive Thy work, O Lord
Give pow’r unto Thy word
And may its pure and sacred truth
In living faith be heard.

Revive Thy word, O Lord
And give refreshing showers
The glory shall be all Thine own
The blessing, Lord be ours.

(Tune: “I Love Thy Kingdom” p. 188)


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We will have a New Year’s Eve service Wednesday night beginning at 07:00pm. Paul Mahan, Pastor of the Central Grace Church in Rocky Mount, Virginia will preach for us and we will observe the Lord’s Table. We will order pizza and eat together afterwards. If you would like to bring something, we will need drinks and desserts.


Birthdays
29th- Amanda Frye 29th – Alan Kincer 30th – Will Hands
31st – Donna Wooten 3rd – Rachel Sullivan

“The memory of the just is blessed: but the name of the wicked shall rot.” - Proverbs 10:7

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If a doctor only treated the symptoms of a disease it would be a disaster. If we have cancer, and are given morphine to take away the pain, but no chemotherapy, radiation, or surgery is used to deal with the cancer itself, we will die.
There are many symptoms of sin. Unhappiness, fear, depression, substance abuse, pride, anger….we could go on and on. The world, particularly religion, seeks to correct the symptoms without dealing with the real problem of sin. It is only the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ that deals with the real problem. Anything less deals only with the symptoms, and we do no real good.


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LAST WORDS OF SCOTTISH PREACHER, MR. JAMES GUTHRIE June 1, 1661
(From the scaffold where he was beheaded for preaching the Gospel)

I am come hither to lay down my life this day, and I bless God, I die not as a fool; not that I have any thing wherein to glory in myself: I acknowledge that I am a sinner, yea, one of the greatest and vilest that has owned a profession of religion, and one of the most unworthy that has preached the Gospel. My corruptions have been strong and many, and have made me a sinner in all things, yea, even in following my duty; and therefore, righteousness have I none of my own, all is vile. But I do believe “that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners, whereof I am chief”; through faith in His righteousness and blood have I obtained mercy; and through Him, and in Him alone, have I the hope of a blessed conquest and victory over sin and Satan, and hell and death, and that I shall attain unto the resurrection of the just, and be made partaker of eternal life. “I know whom I have believed, and that He is able to keep that which I have committed unto Him against that day.” I have preached salvation through His name, and as I have preached, so do I believe, and do commend the riches of His free grace and faith in His name unto you all, as the only way whereby ye can be saved.

A SOLEMN PRAYER
“Oh most Holy, Thou every blessed Lord God, Thou fillest heaven and earth with Thy presence. We pray Thee fill all our hearts with the presence of Thy grace, and let it appear that Thou art in the midst of us, with that powerful assistance of Thy spirit, that we may receive a token of love from Thee at this time. It is a singular favour that the doors of Thy sanctuary are open to us, and that we may meet together in Thy name. We pray Thee, continue it to us, and sanctify it to us, that every Sabbath may add to our stature in Jesus Christ.
We confess we have forfeited all our mercies; we have heard much of God, Christ and heaven with our ears, but there is little of God, Christ and heaven in our hearts. We confess, many of us by hearing sermons, are grown sermon-proof; we know how to scoff and mock at sermons, but we know not how to live sermons. It is a miracle of free grace Thou hast not taken Thy Gospel from us ere this time, but Thou art a merciful God, and though we cannot please Thee, yet mercy pleased Thee; and we have no argument to bring along with us to beg Thy favour, but Thy mercy in Jesus Christ. We pray Thee that Thou wilt glorify Thy sovereignty, in being gracious to us, and pardon our many and great transgressions.”
-Edmund Calamy, 1600-1666

Note: This prayer was made by an English preacher years ago, a man very little is known about, except that he was a “vigorous opponent of Arminianism”. He prayed this prayer just before preaching a message The Effect On A Nation When The Gospel Is Removed; a message for which he was later arrested and put in jail for disobeying The Act of Uniformity. The “Act of Uniformity”, in brief, was a government mandate for all preachers to submit to….. “unfeigned assent and consent to everything contained in the Book of Common Prayer’, an act aimed at trying to stop the puritans from preaching. The sermon Mr. Calamy preached is one of the best I’ve read; one which I intend to use someday. His prayer is certainly worth our solemn consideration.
(Pastor Paul Mahan)