CALL TO WORSHIP

(Tune: “‘Tis So Sweet to Trust in Jesus”)

God is holy, just, and righteous

When He saves us by His love;

He is so based on the merits

Of Christ’s righteousness and blood.

Christ our Savior, Christ our Savior;

Look to Him and Him alone;

In His merits we find favor;

He our Lord is on the throne.

Christ has set us free from bondage;

We the debt no longer owe;

He has paid the fullest ransom,

Now the law must let us go.

Free in Jesus, free in Jesus;

Free to serve Him graciously;

He has bought our full salvation

Pardon, peace, and liberty.

Bible Study: “The Glory of God in Christ: II” –II Samuel 22:5-20

Today’s Speaker: Brother Winston Pannell 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 on WFXL Fox 31, Channel 4. The program will air every Sunday morning at 11 AM. Pray that God will use it for His glory.

Radio Broadcast: Sunday morning at 9:30am on 98.7 FM –WISK. To hear sermons on your computer click on www.americusradio.com

Web Site: Visit our newly designed web site at: www.rofgrace.com . Also visit us at: www.Sermonaudio.com\reignofgrace

Birthdays: Kedrial Riggins – July 4^th. – Mary James Fuller – July 8^th.

(Mt. 6:19-20)

“Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal:” (Mt. 6:19-20)

No matter how much we accumulate of material goods and money in this life, no matter how much we gain of fame and recognition, they will either eventually leave us or we will leave them in death. Either way, it is loss. Our only hope is to seek, find, and store for ourselves “treasures in heaven.” How do we do this? Is it by seeking to work our way into heaven or earn the blessings of heaven by our works? NO. The way we do this is to seek, find, store our whole selves up in the Lord Jesus Christ, “in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge” (Col. 2:3). Real eternal and incorruptible treasure is found in a glorious Person (Christ) not in the things of this world. All who are in Him possess “an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you,” (1 Pet. 1:4). It is a treasure and inheritance that includes the forgiveness of all our sins by His precious blood, an everlasting righteousness of infinite value whereby sinners can be eternally justified before God, have eternal and spiritual life from God whereby we are given true knowledge that leads us to believe and rest in Christ for all salvation. This precious treasure may bring the criticism and even hatred of the world upon us, but Moses esteemed “the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt” (Heb. 11:26). Moses knew that the treasures in Egypt would eventually perish, but the sinner saved by God’s grace in Christ will never perish and neither will all he possesses in Christ.

Pastor Bill Parker

PREACHING PREDESTINATION

If I am to tell the truth about the Lord Jesus Christ and that salvation that is in Him, I must preach predestination. Predestination is essential to knowing God as He really is and ascribing the glory to Him that He deserves. Predestination, which is simply God acting as God, shows us that God not only “can” but “has” worked all things after the counsel of His own will. The word itself means to “mark out before hand.” God has set the bounds of our habitation and before the world began determined all things, especially in the salvation of His elect. “For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.” (Rom. 8:29) Conformity to Christ with all it involves comes surely to God’s people out of His fore-loving them and fore-determining all things necessary to bring it to pass. “in love… Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will,” (Eph 1:5)Without God’s predestination there is no Christ and no inheritance of grace: “In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will:” (Eph 1:11) Things are not determined by man’s so-called “free will” but by the sovereign, wise and gracious will of God. If this were not true, neither God’s prophecies or His promises could be believed and relied upon. But God’s predestination is most evident in the cross death of His Son! This is one of the first things the Spirit of God led Peter to preach to the people: “Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain:” (Acts 2:23) Wicked men of all kinds, doing exactly what they wanted to do and what they’ll be held responsible for doing, did in all things what God had predestinated to be done: “The kings of the earth stood up, and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord, and against his Christ. For of a truth against thy holy child Jesus, whom thou hast anointed, both Herod, and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles, and the people of Israel, were gathered together, For to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined before to be done.” (Ac 4:26-28)God’s people love predestination because they love the One who predestined. They love what God in grace predestined concerning them and their complete salvation by and in Christ!“Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified.”