ZEBULON BAPTIST CHURCH
Weekly Bulletin
Sunday, January 10th, 2010

O how love I thy law! it is my meditation all the day. Thou through thy commandments hast made me wiser than mine enemies: for they are ever with me. I have more understanding than all my teachers: for thy testimonies are my meditation. How sweet are thy words unto my taste! yea, sweeter than honey to my mouth! Through thy precepts I get understanding: therefore I hate every false way. Psalm 119:97-99; 103-104

PASTOR'S NOTE
We plan to have our summer meeting on July 23-25. Our speakers will be Todd Nibert and Paul Mahan.

This is the Record
And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life (1 John 5:11-12).

"This is the record" declared the apostle John; this is the sum and substance of all that is written and preached. God out of His pure free grace is pleased to give unto us eternal life. This life is the spiritual life lost in the fall, life forever free from sin, sorrow, and death. This life is in His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. This life is not only purposed in Him, promised through Him, and purchased by Him but He is that life! (Colossians 3:4) He that has the redeeming Christ, the interceding Christ, the indwelling Christ, has life! Pastor Henry T. Mahan

The Microscope
Many are like a Hindu of whom I once heard. He believed that he must not eat any animal substance, or that if he did he would perish. A missionary said to him, "That, idea is ridiculous. Why, you cannot drink a glass of water without swallowing thousands of living creatures." He did not believe it, so the missionary took a drop of water, and put it under the microscope. When the man saw the innumerable living creatures in the drop of water, what did he do? Why, he broke the microscope; that was his way of settling the question. So, when we meet with persons who say, "Our works are pure, and clean, and excellent," we bring the great microscope of the law of the Lord, and we bid them look through that; and when they do look through it, and discover that even one sinful thought destroys their hope of salvation by self-righteousness, and when they see a whole host of sins in every one of their prayers, or acts, or thoughts, then they are angry with the preacher, and they try to break the microscope. But, for all that, the truth remains, "By the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin." Charles Spurgeon

CHRIST DIED FOR SINNERS
Has God the Holy Spirit caused you to know your corruption? O may he enable you now to believe, the glad tidings of the gospel!

It is true; you are a sinner, base and vile. That is the first lesson in the large book of humiliation you must read all the days of your life. But Christ died for sinners like you. He died for every sinner who comes to God by him, for the very vilest of sinners, and saves them by his grace. He saved Mary Magdalene the harlot, Matthew the publican, Paul the persecutor, Peter the swearer, liar and denier of his Master, the malefactor on the cross, who had been a thief and a murderer, and ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands more like them. - And he still has the same power, will, mercy and grace to save!

He saves graciously and freely, without condition or qualification, and saves forever all who come to God by him. Yes, God's salvation is all of grace, free grace, from beginning to end. Pastor Don Fortner

IF FREE WILL IS TRUE...
Romans 9:16

The belief that most people hold to is that God loves everybody and wants to save everybody. But He has given man a free will, and cannot save a man unless that man, of his own free will, decides to let God save him. If that is true....

The Scriptures are mistaken when they describe man as dead in sins.

God is not sovereign. His will is subject to man's will.

Praying to God for the salvation of sinners is a mistake. We should be praying to men to use their will to let God save them.

Salvation is not dependent upon God, but man.

Man gets a portion of the credit in salvation.

Salvation cannot be said to be 100% grace.

Man's will is the key that unlocks the grace of God. Grace cannot work unless man turns the key.

God's will has no say in the ultimate destiny of the sinner. In reality, God's will is meaningless in the salvation of the sinner.

The will of man controls his own destiny.

The death of Christ was at best a gamble, dependent upon the will of man, and in reality a failure, because many He died for are lost anyway.

The security of the believer hinges on his own will.

Thank God, free will is not true! "It is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy" (Romans 9:16). The believer prefers Free Grace over free will.

Pastor Todd Nibert