ZEBULON BAPTIST CHURCH
Weekly Bulletin
Sunday, October 26th, 2008

LORD, thou hast been favourable unto thy land: thou hast brought back the captivity of Jacob. Thou hast forgiven the iniquity of thy people, thou hast covered all their sin. Selah. Thou hast taken away all thy wrath: thou hast turned thyself from the fierceness of thine anger. Turn us, O God of our salvation, and cause thine anger toward us to cease. Psalm 85:1-4

SAVED BY CHRIST
If salvation depends upon our being or doing anything, we shall inevitably be lost. Thank God, it does not; for the great fundamental principle of the gospel is, that Christ is all: man is nothing. It is not a mixture of Christ and man---it is all of Christ. The peace of the gospel does not rest in part on Christ's work and in part on man's work; it rests wholly on Christ's work, because that work is perfect, perfect forever; and it renders all who put their trust in Him as perfect as Himself! Christ must either be a whole Saviour, or no Saviour at all. The moment a man says, "Except you be this or that, you cannot be saved," he totally subverts the gospel; for in the gospel I find Christ coming down to me, just as I am--a lost, guilty, self-destroyed sinner; and coming, moreover, with a full remission of all my sins, and a full salvation from my lost estate, all perfectly wrought by Himself on the cross. C. H. MacKintosh

Grace, An Anchor For The Soul
"And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us."(Romans 5: 5)

How the Scriptures speak of "a good hope through grace;" and call it " an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which entereth into that within the veil" (Heb. 6:20). What a blessed grace must that be which thus enters into the very presence of Christ! How, too, the word of God speaks of it as the twin sister with faith and love (I Cor.13:13); and declares that it "maketh not ashamed," because it springs out of the love of God shed abroad in the heart by the Holy Ghost.

Now we learn what "a good hope through grace " is, by being tossed up and down on the waves of despondency, and almost at times sinking into despair. Evidences so darkened, the heart so shut up, the mind so bewildered, sin so present, the Lord so absent, a nature so carnal, sensual, idolatrous, and adulterous-no wonder that amidst so many evils felt or feared, the soul should at times sink into despondency. But at such seasons the blessedness of "a good hope through grace" is found; and when this anchor is cast into and enters within the veil, taking hold of the blood and righteous­ness of the great High Priest, how strongly and securely it holds the ship, so that it shall not be utterly overwhelmed in the billows of despair! J.C. Philpot

GENUINE LOVE FOR GOD
We love Him, because He first loved us. If a man says, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar." (I John 4:19-20.)

Lest love to God and love to one another should be thought to be a product of our own nature, John reminds us that God's love for us preceded our love for Him. If we love God sincerely it is because He loved us and if we love others it is because of His grace and the love of God, which He shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit. We have what we have, do what we do, and are what we are by the grace of God. Boasting is excluded; spiritual pride has no place in the believer. This is the reason why a man cannot love God and hate his brother, for the same grace that produces love for God begats love for these in whom Christ dwells.

Nothing can be more contradictory - not black and white or hot and cold - than for a man to say, "I love God and hate my brother." This is a thing impossible. A man cannot love God and hate the image and work of God before his eyes. A genuine love for God will result in a love for all that God is, does, and reveals of Himself. We love His Son, His Word, His law, His church, His providence, and His people. This love is not a tolerance of such, nor a reluctant duty, but a genuine, spontaneous inward feeling of affection, produced by the indwelling Holy Spirit, which grows daily, overcomes selfish feelings and makes allowances for every infirmity and human failure. It is a principle of the heart that desires to bestow the very best upon the object of affection. If Christ can love me as I am, how can I fail to love you as you are? Pastor Henry Mahan

PRAYER
For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, Of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, That he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man; That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God. Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us, Unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen. (Eph. 3:14-21)

When the apostle prayed for the believers at Ephesus, he prayed that they might be strengthened inwardly in the heart (2Cor. 4:16). He prays that they would continue to grow in faith and love toward Christ. To know more of His love toward His elect. I pray that God would teach us to pray this way for each other. Often we just pray for temporary and natural things instead of spiritual things and eternal things. Oh to know more of his love for us!!

• The breadth or scope of His love, (1John 4;10; John 3:16).
• The length of His love, to all eternity (Jer. 31:3; Jn. 13:1; 17:23).
• The depth of His love, to the lowest sinner (Rom. 5:8; 1 Tim. 1:15).
• The height of His love, to the throne of grace (Eph. 2:4-6; Rom. 8:28-39; Heb. 4:16).

Pray also as Paul did with confidence, "Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us, Unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end." Pastor Tom Harding