January 31, 2010
Sundays 7:00 am Channel 27 WKYT
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
Dear Lord, to us assembled here
Reveal Thy glorious face
While we by faith, with love and fear
Approach Thy Throne of Grace.

Thy house is called the house of prayer
A solemn, sacred place
O, let us now Thy presence share
While at Thy Throne of Grace.

With holy boldness may we come
Though of a sinful race
Thankful to find in Christ there’s room
Before Thy Throne of Grace.

We bless Thee for Thy love and grace
We bless Thee for Thy peace
And we do bless Thee, Lord, because
There is a Throne of Grace.

(Tune: “Jesus The Very Thought” p. 58)


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I am preaching this weekend in St. Croix where Daniel Parks is the missionary, and will return home Monday. Bob Coffey will bring the message this morning and Andy Davis will speak tonight.


Zack Robinette will confess Christ in believer’s baptism next Sunday evening. If anyone else would like to be baptized then, please let me know.


Birthdays
3rd – James Carver 4th – Jessica Cunningham 4th – Stan Warta

“The discretion of a man deferreth his anger; and it is his glory to pass over a transgression.” - Proverbs 19:11


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The Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ is profoundly mysterious. It reveals subjects such as the Trinity; God is one God in three distinct persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. It reveals the believer’s eternal union with the Lord Jesus Christ. We have always been united to Him. It tells us how a guilty sinner can be without guilt before God. These are just a few of the profound mysteries which could never have been known unless God was pleased to make them known in His word. These mysteries are not so much explained and understood, but declared and believed. “Great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh” (I Timothy 3:16).

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“It shall be well with the righteous” – Isaiah 3:10
In spiritual things all your temptations, all your darkness, all your wanderings God will overrule. It shall be well with you. There shall never be a night, but that morning shall come; there shall never be a day of trouble, but a day of prosperity shall follow; there shall never be an emptying, but there shall be a filling; there shall never be a bringing down, but that He will raise you up again. Let it be either darkness or light, sorrow or grief, night or day, life or death, time or eternity, “It shall be well with the righteous.” - Pastor Scott Richardson

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To speak what I do NOT believe is hypocrisy. NOT to speak what I do believe is cowardly. To speak what I believe only when and where I know it will be received is deceitful. – Pastor Henry Mahan

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The grace of God influences both the understanding and the affections. Warm affections without knowledge, can rise no higher than superstition; and that knowledge which does not influence the heart and affections will only make a hypocrite. – John Newton

 

THE OFFENSE OF THE CROSS

Paul called his message “the offense of the cross” (Galatians 5:11). Again and again he warned that the true Gospel of God’s grace and glory would meet with great opposition from the religious world and the natural world. “The preaching of the cross is foolishness” (I Corinthians 2:14). Our Lord said, “Marvel not, my brethren, if the world hate you” (I John 3:14). He also said, “They shall put you out of the synagogues; yea, the time cometh that whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God service” (John 16:2). If what we preach is NOT offensive to the religionist and to the worldling, then it is NOT the Gospel of Christ. I repeat, it is NOT the Gospel!
1. GOD’S ABSOLUTE SOVEREIGNTY in creation, providence and redemption offends man’s claim to free will! “We will not have this man to REIGN over us” (Luke 19:14).
2. The preaching of TOTAL DEPRAVITY AND INABILITY offends man’s dignity and claim to personal righteousness. “We be not born of fornication,” that is,“We be not (they say) born in sin. We may not be perfect but we are not totally corrupt in God’s sight.”
3. The Gospel of Christ comes by REVELATION, and this offends man’s natural wisdom. The college professor knows as much about the mysteries of grace as the farmhand, which is nothing apart from the Spirit of God.
4. EFFECTUAL REDEMPTION through the Person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ, our Substitute and Sin-offering, offends man’s pride. Men would have God do all that He wants to do and all that He can do, but there must be a work left for the sinner to perform, that we might share somewhat in the glory.
5. THE LORDSHIP OF JESUS CHRIST offends man’s desire for recognition here and hereafter. “They said unto Him grant unto us that we may sit, one on the right hand, and the other on Thy left hand, in glory” (Mark 10:37).
“Let us have a system of rewards to distinguish us in some way from the beggar.” Sadly, men have established their social levels here and presume to continue them in heaven. – Pastor Henry Mahan


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Pastor Scott Richardson once said, “There is something in the Lord Jesus Christ more excellent than the salvation which He wrought; and that something is the greatness of His Person.”