April 12, 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
Sovereign grace o’er sin abounding!
Ransomed souls, the tidings swell
‘Tis a deep that knows no sounding
Who its breadth or length can tell?
What from Christ that soul can sever
Bound by everlasting bands?
Once in Him, in Him forever
None can pluck them from His hands.
Heirs of God, join-heirs with Jesus
Long ere time its race begun
To His name eternal praises
O what wonders Christ hath done.
On such love, my soul shall ponder
Love so great, so rich, so free
Say, while lost in holy wonder
Why, O Lord, such love to me?
(Tune: “Jesus Calls Us” p. 374)
*****
Vacation Bible School will be June 23rd – 25th from 10:30am –
1:30pm.
< FONT face="Times New Roman"> Our meeting will be this weekend.
There will be no Bible Study or evening service next Sunday. The sign-up sheet
for food is in the foyer. Services are: Friday 7:00pm - Saturday 6:00pm -
Sunday 10:00am.
Cody Groover, Missionary to Mexico, will preach for us this Wednesday evening.
Birthdays
13th – Sarah Byrd 14th – Velena Verenich 16th – Yvonne Davis
16th – Ann Schuyler 17th – Raven Leigh Bailey 18th – Melissa
Virgin
“Foolishness is bound in the heart of a child, but the rod of correction
will drive it far from him.” - Proverb 22:15
*****
“Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not
enter the kingdom of heaven” (Matt. 18:3). From this we see that becoming
a little child is a necessary part of salvation. There is no entrance into
the kingdom of heaven without it. And what is this thing of becoming as a
little child? It is the capacity to believe. When the father of a little child
tells them something, that little child simply believes what his father says.
He doesn’t doubt or question. He simply believes it, because it was
his father who said it. Nothing else is needed to verify it as true. Children
have a capacity to believe. Faith is taking God at His word. “Abraham
believed God.” We do not believe something because we understand it.
We believe something because God said it. That is the faith of the little
child.
*****
MERCY OR MERIT?
Understanding that God’s mercy is Him not giving us what we deserve
is fundamental in our asking for mercy. Without this understanding, it is
impossible to ask for mercy. Without understanding this, we are not asking
God for mercy - we have entered the realm of merit - we think that God is
somehow obligated to have mercy on us. When mercy is obligated, it is no longer
mercy – it becomes merit.
*****
KNOWLEDGE THAT WILL PREVENT SELF-RIGHTEOUSNESS
Knowing…that PERFECTION is found in Christ alone causes me to cease
from expecting it in other.
Knowing…. MYSELF to be the chief of sinners causes me to be more tolerant
of other sinners.
Knowing….that GOD is the first cause of all things causes me to cease
from blaming others.
; Knowing….my IGNORANCE causes me to cease from always correcting others.
– Author Unknown
CHRIST IS ALL
My sins may grieve me, and indeed they do, but since Christ is all, since
my salvation is based entirely on what He has done, what I have done is of
no eternal consequence. Such a statement may trouble the mind of the legalist,
for he simply cannot believe that his actions do not determine his destiny.
However, the believer knows that God has “Predestinated us unto the
adoption of children by Jesus Christ” (Ephesians 1:5). The believer’s
destiny has been determined by God, and secured by the person and merits of
Jesus Christ.
Will such preaching breed a sinful life or an antinomian spirit? Only in those
who do not believe! However, in those who do believe, in whose heart resides
the blessed hope of being like Christ, it is a purifying truth.
“And every man that hath this hope in him purifies himself,
even as He is pure.” (I John 3:3)
Christ is ALL and that is all.
- Pastor Joe Terrell
*****
The “god” of this century no more resembles the Supreme Sovereign
Holy Writ than does the dim flickering of a candle the glory of the midday
sun. The god who is now talked about in the average pulpit, spoken of in the
ordinary Sunday School, mentioned in most of the religious literature of the
day, and preached in most of the so-called Bible conferences is the figment
of human imagination, an invention of overemotional sentimentality. The heathen
outside the pale of Christendom form gods out of wood and stone while the
millions of heathen inside Christendom manufacture a god out of their own
carnal minds. In reality, they are but atheists; for there is no other possible
alternative between an absolute supreme God and no God at all! A “god”
whose will is resisted, whose designs are frustrated, whose purpose is checkmated
possesses no title to Deity, and so far from being a fit object of worship,
merits naught but contempt!
&n bsp; - Arthur W. Pink
*****
Concerning the accumulation of riches and material wealth, Matthew Henry wrote:
“There is a burden of care in getting them, fear in keeping them, temptation
in using them, guilt in abusing them, sorrow in loosing them, and a burden
of account at the last to be given concerning them.” Let us set our
affection on things above and not on things of this world! - Pastor Charles
Pennington