March 29, 2009
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
Jesus, engrave it on my heart
That Thou the one thing needful art
I could from all things parted be
But never,20never, Lord, from Thee.
Needful art Thou to make me live
Needful art Thou all grace to give
Needful is Thy most precious blood
Needful is Thy correcting rod.
Needful Thy presence, dearest Lord
True peace and comfort=2 0to afford
Needful art Thou, my soul can say
Through all life’s dark and thorny way.
Needful art Thou to raise my dust
In shining glory with the just
Needful when in heav’n appear
To welcome and present20me there.
(Tune: “Doxology”)
*****
Birthdays
3rd – Mariesha Watters 4th – Barbara Tucker
I would like to find the soldier who pierced our Lord’s side for I would
tell Him that the blood he shed is sufficient atonement for the sin of shedding
it. – Pastor Scott Richardson
“Say not, thou, I will recompense evil; but wait on the Lord, and He
shall save thee.” - Proverb 20:22
WHY ARE THINGS THE WAY THEY ARE?
“And it came to pass in those days, that there went out a decree from
Caesar Agustus, that all the world should be taxed” (Luke 2:1). The
ramifications of this tax were far-reaching, throughout the world of the Roman
Empire. Everybody was affected in some way. Who moved Caesar to do this? God
did. “The Kings heart is in the hand of the Lord, as the rive rs of
water: He turneth it whithersoever He will” (Proverb 21:1). While this
affected everyone, God had one primary purpose. Christ was to be born in Bethlehem.
It was prophesied in Micah 5:2. Joseph and Mary lived in Nazareth. But through
this taxation, Joseph and Mary had to return to Bethlehem, the place of Joseph’s
birth, in order to pay their taxes. While there, the Christ was born in Bethlehem
as God said. God does things that affect the entire world so that His purpose
will be accomplished. With regard to everything that happens politically,
socially, and economically….. God is the first cause behind it, controls
it, and uses it for the glory of His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.
*****
THE DOUBLE MINDED MAN
“For let not that man think that he shall receive anything from the
Lord. A double-minded man is unstable in all his ways.”(James 1:7-8)
Who is the double-minded man? =2 0Is he the two-faced man, who presents himself
in one way to one crowd, but another way to a different crowd? That is not
a good way to be, but that is not what James is talking about. The double-minded
man has no “singleness of heart” (Eph. 6:5). He seeks to serve
two Masters. He has two ways of salvation. He has two objects of faith. He
has two motives. He has never learned “the simplicity of Christ”
(II Cor. 11:3). He knows nothing of the “One thing needful” (Luke
10:42). He has never entered into the “One thing have I desired”
of David (Psalm 27:4). Nor has he ever been able to say with Paul, “This
one thing I do” (Phil. 4:13).
Because he is double-minded, he is “unstable in all his ways.”
Like Rueben, unstable as water, he shall not excel. He has no spiritual strength.
Like water, he conforms to the container he is placed in. The double-minded
man is a very unhappy man. Having two of everything, in reality he has nothing.
James tells us, “Let not that man think he shall receive anything from
the Lord.” It is when we look to Christ only, that we are single-minded.
THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE
You cannot vanquish a sovereign gra ce believer. You may think you can, but
you cannot. The stones of the great doctrines of grace so fit into each other
that the more pressure there is applied to remove them, the more strenuously
do they adhere! And mark, my friend, that you cannot receive ONE of the doctrines
of God’s grace without believing ALL OF THEM. If you hold that man is
utterly depraved, you must draw the conclusion that life and salvation must
come from God alone and that our God has the right to give or withhold His
mercy as He wills. And if no man will come to Christ unless God chooses and
calls him, then you are forced to believe that God elects His people in Christ,
the Lord Jesus justifies them by His blood, and through the sanctification
of the Spirit and belief of the truth all of His elect will receive Christ,
believe and love Him until God calls them to His glory. Charles Spurgeon once
wrote, “Regarding the words of Romans 8:29-30, a man must receive the
whole or reject the whole! It puts a strain on judgment and discernm ent to
think that one may believe two or three of these points and not the rest.
The doctrines of the fall, election, particular redemption, effectual call,
and perseverance stand like soldiers in a square, presenting on every side
a line of defense which is hazardous to attack and easy to maintain.”
“For whom He did predestinate, them He also called, and whom He called,
them He also justified: and whom He justified, them he also glorified”
(Romans 8:30). - Copied
*****
“REST WITH US”
II Thessalonians 1:7
There are many things that trouble us in this life. Even the believer is constantly
beset with troubles “on every side” (II Cor. 4:8). We are troubled
by the world’s situation, troubled by the economy, troubled at work,
troubled at home, and chiefly troubled within ourselves by our own sin and
corruption. But the word comes to us…. REST WITH US.”
There is rest for the soul troubled by sin and guilt, by trusting the Person
and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. There is rest for the weary, rest for the
sorrowing, rest for the lonely, in the knowledge of a living Lord and Savior.
- Pastor Paul Mahan