CALL TO WORSHIP

(Tune: How Firm A Foundation)

Thy mercy, my God, is the theme of my song,

The joy of my heart & the boast of my ton­gue;

Thy grace, so free, from the 1st to the last,

Has won my affections and bound my soul fast.

Thy mercy in Jesus has saved me from hell;

Its glories to sing & its wonders to tell;

Twas Christ my Redeemer who hung on the tree,

That opened the fountain of mercy for me.

Great Father of mercies, Thy goodness I own,

And the covenant love of Thy crucified Son;

All praise to Thy Spirit; His calling Di­vine,

Makes wisdom & pardon & righteousness mine.

Secure in Christ Jesus, no power can shake;

The foundation is laid, & it never can break;

With God justified, our salvation to bless,

In the Lord Jesus Christ our Righteous­ness.

Today’s Speaker: Brother Jim Casey will conduct the 11:00 am service today. Pray for him as he delivers God’s word.

Television Broadcast: Our Reign of Grace Television program is being broadcast every Sunday morning on WALB-TV @ 9 AM.

Radio Broadcast: Sunday morning at 10:30 am on Mix 107.7 FM

Web Sites: Visit our web sites at:

Reign of Grace: www.rofgrace.com

Sermon Audio: www.Sermonaudio.com\reignofgrace

Birthdays: Kathryn Cox – Aug. 19^th – Jane Sparks – Aug. 19^th

Mariel Moore – Aug. 20^th

There is a ransom all sinners’ need but none can pay

The price set and owed is beyond the capability or possibility of sinful humanity to pay. It is the ransom God found in Job 33:24 Then he is gracious unto him, and saith, Deliver him from going down to the pit: I have found a ransom. It is a ransom of which all by nature are ignorant. It is a ransom all by nature think they seek to pay. It is of such value; God’s glory and the eternal salvation of His Elect depend on its administration. In the experience of Job and his three friends we see God’s testimony concerning the importance of a ransom for sinners.

After Job lost his possessions and health his three friends paid him a visit. The purpose of their visit was to comfort Job in his afflictions by offering their advice as to the cause and remedy for his suffering. To a man they accused him of unconfessed sin in his life. Job labeled them in Job 16:2, “miserable comforters” because they had no satisfactory answer to his question; “why do the righteous suffer.” Such miserable comforters are described in Isaiah 8:20: “To the law and the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them.”

Any sinner, being ignorant of how a holy God could punish the only perfect man who ever lived and remain just is surely ignorant of how God can be just and justify the ungodly. To be in this darkness is to be lost because this question and the correct answer to it is at the heart of the gospel. Job’s friends, to a man accused him of being unrighteous. Their charge was that Job had some unconfessed sin in his life keeping God from blessing him and that his confession and repentance would bring deliverance and blessing from God. They were ignorant of the fact that God does not charge his Elect with their sins. Our sins were charged to Christ who put them away by satisfaction. They could not see how God could not punish Job because of his sin. They could not see that God punished Job’s sin in Christ. They could not see that God would be unjust to punish sin twice: once in the sinner’s Substitute and then the sinner. It is true, “for whom the lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgest every son he receiveth,”(Hebrews 12:6)but he does not punish his own for their sins; they were punished in Christ, who paid the ransom in full. They were miserable comforters because they had no answer to his suffering. They could not see that even in the state Job found himself physically, he was far better off spiritually than they. They could not see that his state before God didn’t change his standing with God.

--- Winston Pannell

"And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me." —John 12:32

Wherever Jesus is graciously and experimentally manifested to the soul, and made known by any sweet revelation of his glorious Person, atoning blood, and finished work; a secret yet sacred power is put forth, whereby we are drawn unto him; and every grace of the Spirit flows toward him as towards its attractive center. Thus Jeremiah speaks of the saints of God as coming and singing in the height of Zion, and flowing together to the goodness of the Lord (Jer. 31:12). And thus Isaiah speaks to the church of God, "Then you shall see, and flow together, and your heart shall fear [or as the word rather means, shall 'palpitate' with love and joy], and be enlarged" (Isaiah 60:5).

This view of Christ by faith is what the apostle speaks of to the Galatians, as Jesus evidently set forth before their eyes (Gal. 3:1). As thus set before our eyes, he becomes the object of our faith to look at, ("Look unto me and be saved, all the ends of the earth"); "the altogether lovely," to whom love flows; and the Intercessor within the veil in whom hope effectually anchors. As, then, the blessed Lord is revealed to the soul by the power of God, his glorious Person held up before the eyes of the spiritual understanding, his blood and righteousness discovered to the conscience, and his suitability to all our needs and woes experimentally manifested, the blessed Spirit raises up a living faith whereby he is looked unto and laid hold of, and thus he becomes precious to all that believe in his name.

--- J.C. Philpot (1802-1868)

The affair of redemption by Christ is no new thing. The scheme of it was drawn up in eternity. The persons to be redeemed were fixed on. The Redeemer was appointed in the counsel and covenant of peace. And even the very gospel which proclaims it was ordained before the world for our glory. A Savior was provided before sin was committed, and the method of man's recovery was settled before his ruin took place. This was done without any regard to the works and merits of men, but is wholly owing to the free and sovereign grace of God and to His everlasting love.