Come sing of sovereign grace, ye people of the Lord; Proclaim Jehovah’s matchless grace, Join in with one accord. Christ gave Himself to die – behold redeeming grace! The Substitute laid down His life to save His chosen race.
The Spirit to us came, when we in sin were dead; Poured quick’ning grace into the souls, Of those for whom Christ bled. That grace which saves from sin instructs us on our way; And grace will keep us ever safe, nor let us go astray.
A vessel of His grace, by covenant design; By grace the Savior calls me His, By grace I call Him mine. The good news of His grace should calm each doubt & fear; God saves us by His grace alone, sweet message to the ear.
TODAY’S SERVICES – Messages by Pastor Bill Parker
BIBLE CLASS – 10:00 a.m. –
How Righteous Must We Be? (2) – Matthew 5:21-30
MORNING WORSHIP – 11:00 a.m –
OPENING – Psalm 94:12-15
CALL TO WORSHIP (above)
HYMN – God Leads Us Along – p. 298
READING – Psalm 32
MESSAGE – The Chastening of the Lord – Heb. 12:4-13
CLOSING HYMN – Day by Day – p. 299
MID-WEEK BIBLE STUDY – WEDNESDAY – 6:30 P.M.
Essential Truths of the Christian Faith
Birthdays: Debra Riggins – Oct. 22nd | Mike Lee – Oct. 24th
Jim Casey – Oct. 27th
We will serve the LORD’S SUPPER next Sunday (10/29/2017) following our morning services. We will have a fellowship meal afterward.
“When the poor and needy seek water, and there is none, and their
tongue faileth for thirst, I the LORD will hear them, I the God of Israel will not forsake them. I will open rivers in high places, and fountains in the midst of the valleys: I will make the wilderness a pool of water, and the dry land springs of water” (Isaiah 41:17-18).
“CHRIST HAD TO BECOME ALL I AM”?
I sometimes hear preachers say something like this: “Christ had to become all I am to save me.” Their view is that Christ is an absolute substitute. But where do they get this? Not the Bible! This may be logical to the human mind but it is not Biblical truth. The truth is, Christ came sent of the Father to BE and DO what I could not be or do! For Christ to be what I am He would have to become a sinner and this would render Him an unsuitable sacrifice for sins. No, Christ came to be what we could not be, a sinless Substitute to die in our place before the holy justice of God. Being what we could not, He died as the Lamb without spot or blemish, satisfying the sin debt of all His elect by His death. “The wages of sin is death,” and Christ died a substitutionary death, bearing our sins in His own body on the tree when He was put to death. If Christ had to be what I am then there was evidently a period of time that He ceased to be God who is holy and unchangeable. As Paul says, “God forbid!” His deity is what gives His sacrifice value to redeem a multitude and makes it acceptable to God. If being a sinner saves someone before God, then half of Adam’s race could have been saved without Christ because the other half could have died for them! Christ’s uniqueness is what saves His people. He was a sinless MAN! We are redeemed “by the precious blood of Christ.” Only sinless blood could save us. Biblical substitution is Christ dying “the JUST for the unjust.” Thank God He was not what I am nor did He become all that I am.” Christ died for sinners because He was not one and did not become one! Dying this way, He brought us to God!
–Pastor Gary Shepard
FAITH OR EXPERIENCE?
Experience-based religion is false religion. The true religion of God’s grace in and by the Lord Jesus Christ is faith-based religion. What does this mean? Faith-based religion is religion BASED ON GOD’S REVEALED WORD, not on our experiences as fallen, sinful human beings. In our lives as fallen, sinful human beings, we will have many experiences and many feelings. We will be up one day and down the next. We will see things we cannot explain. But the only way we can judge any experience or feeling as being from Christ and of the work of the Holy Spirit within us is as these things line up with God’s Word revealed in the Holy Scriptures. The prophet Isaiah said it – “To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to THIS WORD, it is because there is no light in them” (Isa. 8:20). The Word of God ALWAYS brings a convicted sinner to trust and rest in the Lord Jesus Christ as HE is God manifests in the flesh as revealed in the Holy Scriptures. The Word of God ALWAYS brings a convicted sinner to trust and rest in the Lord Jesus Christ as the only Savior by whose blood our sins are forgiven and by whose righteousness imputed God is just to justify the ungodly. The Word of God ALWAYS brings a convicted sinner to trust and rest in Christ as the only source and giver of spiritual life. And the Word of God shows us that it is ALL OF GOD’S GRACE and never by our works! Consider this – If you have been blessed of God to have been born again by the Holy Spirit, then you have been brought by God to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and not in yourself, for ALL salvation. You have been brought by God to true repentance, not only of your sins of immorality, but also of your sins of self-righteousness and false religion. You have been brought by God to see that IN CHRIST you are complete, perfect, and righteous before God based on Christ’s righteousness imputed to you. How do you know all of this is true? If the Holy Spirit has given you inward spiritual life, I know you have not experienced righteousness within yourself. You do not feel righteous within yourself. But you know these things are truth BY GOD-GIVEN FAITH which involves believing God’s Word. The gift of faith in Christ is an inward experience every true believer has, but this gift causes us not to rely on the experience itself but to rely on God’s Word in Christ. God’s Word is greater than our experiences and our feelings. –Pastor Bill Parker
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