CALL TO WORSHIP
(Tune – O For a Thousand Tongues – p. 46)
(Words by Pastor Jim Byrd)

Let every heart and voice unite
To sing our Maker’s praise;
Extol the glories of our God,
And loud His anthems raise.

He works His perfect, holy will
Throughout His vast domain;
For time and all eternity,
God sovereignly shall reign.

All men and angels, demons too,
Accomplish His design;
For all creation works His will
To make His glories shine.

Bow humbly at the sovereign throne,
Of Him who is our King;
Come praise the Lord with heart and voice,
And of His greatness sing.

TODAY’S SERVICES – Messages by Pastor Bill Parker
BIBLE CLASS – 10:00 a.m. –
Exposing False Preachers – Jude 10-13

MORNING WORSHIP – 11:00 a.m –

• OPENING – John 6:37-39

• CALL TO WORSHIP (above)

• HYMN – Nothing But the Blood – p. 212

• READING – Romans 8:28-39

• MESSAGE – Christ’s Disciples Indeed (2) – John 8:30-32

• CLOSING HYMN – Near the Cross – p. 351

MID-WEEK BIBLE STUDY – WEDNESDAY – 6:30 P.M.
Exposition of Romans 9 – 11

Birthdays: Alex Wages – June 1^st

FREE JUSTIFICATION

Free justification is a doctrine that is foreign to the minds of men, contrary to the nature of men, and illogical to the logic of men. That we should be declared righteous by God without anything being done by us is folly to the pride of men. But this is the message of the Gospel. It is the good news to sinners who naturally find loathsome the very thing that is essential to God showing mercy to sinners. It is the only hope of those blinded by Satan to see it. However, since it is free, accomplished by Christ, it cannot be stopped. We have no ordinary justifier, “It is God that justified.” He is God who “justifies the ungodly.” When He reveals this to those justified sinners, they are made to rejoice in it and be thankful for it. This is the only hope of God’s people, “Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus:” (Rom. 3:24) –Pastor Gary Shepard

And when He [God the Holy Spirit] is come, He will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment: Of sin, because they believe not on Me [the Lord Jesus Christ]; Of righteousness, because I go to My Father, and ye see Me no more; Of judgment, because the prince of this world is judged. (John 16:8-11)

Until we understand that ungodliness, worldliness, carnality, idolatry, and all sinfulness includes the most religious and dedicated people who do not know and believe in the true Christ of the Bible and do not know the accomplishment of His work of redemption on the cross for His people to establish the only righteousness by which God justifies sinners and gives them eternal life, we will not understand the Bible, the issues of sin and righteousness as revealed in the Gospel, and the salvation that comes only by God’s grace in Christ Jesus.

–Pastor Bill Parker

AM I A SAINT, AM I SANCTIFIED?

So many people are confused on the matter of true, Biblical sanctification. So many believe a sanctified people are those who fall into one of three categories: (1) those who are in some way morally perfect because they have attained great degrees of morality, sincerity, and dedication, (2) those who are close to becoming morally perfect by their efforts to be religious sincere, dedicated to service, or (3) those who are at least striving to be morally perfect. None of these things describe sanctified people according to the Bible. The word “sanctified” means to be “set apart.” In the Bible a sanctified person is one who has been set apart by God the Father in the sovereign election of grace before the foundation of the world (Jude 1; Eph. 1:3-6). In the Bible a sanctified person is one who has been set apart by God in redemption by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ (1 Cor. 1:2; Rom. 6:3-7). In the Bible a sanctified person is one who has been set apart by God the Holy Spirit in the new birth and brought to faith in Christ and true repentance (2 Thess. 2:13-14).

With this in mind, can I rightly answer the question, AM I A SAINT, AM I SANCTIFIED? For me to know whether or not I have been set apart by God in the election of grace and the redemption of grace, I must be brought by the Holy Spirit to believe and rest in Christ for all salvation, forgiveness, righteousness, and life. This is the calling of grace that sets God’s people apart from the world. Those whom God has sanctified are “elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ” (1 Pet. 1:2).