CALL TO WORSHIP

(Tune – O For a Thousand Tongues – p. 46)

To Christ the Risen Lord we sing, in Him alone we boast.

All other hopes we now deny, and trust the Lord of hosts.

Praise Him by whom all things were made, to glorify His name.

Exalt Him Who now reigns o’er all – forever more the same.

But we as sinners saved from sin, we praise Him most for grace:

Who came in human flesh to die and suffer in our place.

We praise Him for the blood He shed, redemption's costly price;

We praise Him for His righteousness that for us shall suffice.

We praise Him for His keeping love that binds our hearts to Him;

We praise Christ Jesus, Lord of all, our Savior great and Friend.

TODAY’S SERVICES – Messages by Pastor Bill Parker

BIBLE CLASS – 10:00 a.m. –

Wanted: Dead AND Alive – Romans 6:9-13

MORNING WORSHIP – 11:00 a.m –

• OPENING – Jeremiah 23:5-6

• CALL TO WORSHIP (above)

• HYMN – Grace Greater Than Our Sin – p. 209

• READING – Psalm 72

• MESSAGE – The King of Righteousness – Hebrews 1:4-14

• CLOSING HYMN – Rock of Ages – p. 126

Birthdays: Neil Jackson – Feb. 12^th | Andrea Pannell – Feb. 15^th
Delaney Renfroe – Feb. 15^th | Rylie Renfroe – Feb. 15^th
Jarrett McKenzie – Feb. 16^th | Toni Jones – Feb. 16^th

Our sincere sympathies are extended to Kip and Lisa McMillan. Kip’s father, J. L. McMillan, passed away last Tuesday, and Lisa’s father, Dr. Morris Davis, passed away last Wednesday. Please remember them and their families in prayer.

“And the apostles said unto the Lord, Increase our faith” (Luke 17:5).

How then to have our faith increased? Only by thinking of all that Jesus is, and all He is for us: His life, His death, His work, He Himself as revealed to us in the Word, to be the subject of our constant thoughts. Not a striving to have faith, or to increase our faith, but a looking off to the Faithful One seems all we need; a resting in the Loved One entirely, for time and for eternity. It does not appear to me as anything new, only formerly misapprehended.

“And the work of righteousness shall be peace; and the effect of righteousness quietness and assurance for ever.” (Isaiah 32:17)

The work of righteousness is the work of Christ, not the work(s) of men. How could we have peace and a settled mind for assurance based upon our works? This would only be self-righteousness. But looking to and depending upon Christ for all righteousness, there is no greater peace and no better assurance to quieten our troubled spirits.

—Pastor Bill Parker

PIETY

Some talk of “Piety!” Piety! Piety! Piety! Were it not that it does once occur in the Word of God, I should hate the very word. People make so much of it, as though piety were to save them. Their parents were pious, they were brought up pious, and they have continued pious. But even where the word does occur in the New Testament (1 Timothy 5:4) it simply means kindness, as the margin has it—let them show kindness at home. The word has nothing to do with salvation. True religion humbles a sinner. Angels assemble together in the court of heaven and rejoice over brokenhearted sinners. O then, to rely upon Christ, to plead His love and blood, and to lean upon Him and upon Him alone and not upon your own repentance; this is the effect of grace. It is said of some kind of stones that they will not break until they have been steeped for a certain length of time in goat's blood; this may be so, but whether or not, it is so with your adamantine (unyielding) hearts. Nothing will break them but being steeped in blood, the blood of the Scape-goat of the wilderness. —William Gadsby

A REMNANT

Paul, in the book of Romans, reminds us that “Even so then at this present time also there is a remnant according to the election of grace.” (Rom. 11:1-6) A “remnant” is a part of a greater piece or body. It may be a small piece, but it is still a part of the whole. Paul makes reference to Elijah who sat down under a juniper tree in despair and discouragement and begged God to die, thinking that he alone was left who truly believed and served the living God. God’s words to Elijah revealed just the opposite. “Yet I have left me seven thousand in Israel, all the knees which have not bowed unto Baal, and every mouth which hath not kissed him.” 1 Ki 19:18) Not everyone had bowed to the idolatry of the day, not everyone had been deceived by the false prophets of the age and not everyone had gone in the cowardly way of unbelief. There was still a “remnant.” And so it is in this hour, “there is a remnant according to the election of grace.” God in His sovereign grace has seen to it. There is a remnant of men and women who have been brought to hear the Gospel of the grace of God. Over every obstacle they have been brought, through every Satan-set barrier God has brought them. They have forsaken their own righteousness, their old experiences, their past traditions and have come by God’s sovereign power to trust Christ alone. They did not do it on their own, they were effectually called out of this fallen race and out of the darkness of religious error. They are not many when compared to those who remain in darkness, but they belong to the Son of God, love Him, hear His Words, plead His blood, bow to His reign and follow Him.