April 7, 2019
Ye are my witnesses, saith the LORD, and my servant whom I have chosen: that ye may know and believe me, and understand that I am he: before me there was no God formed, neither shall there be after me. I, even I, am the LORD; and beside me there is no saviour. I have declared, and have saved, and I have shewed, when there was no strange god among you: therefore ye are my witnesses, saith the LORD, that I am God. Yea, before the day was I am he; and there is none that can deliver out of my hand: I will work, and who shall let it?
Isaiah 43:10-13
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SCHEDULED MEETINGS
Sunday Morning Bible Study 10:00 AM
Sunday Morning Worship 11:00 AM
Friday Night Bible Study 7:30 PM
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OPENING HYMN
“Leaning on The Everlasting Arms” pg354
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SCRIPTURE READING
Psalm 119:129-136
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OFFERTORY
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WORSHIP HYMN
“The Church’s One Foundation” pg277
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SPECIAL MUSIC
To be announced
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Message Title
“Salvation Proclaimed”
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CLOSING HYMN
“Blessed Assurances Jesus Is Mine” pg345
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A searching question and a satisfying answer
“Our Lord had pressed upon his hearers the great truths of the gospel. He told them plainly that he was God the eternal Son. He taught them man’s complete spiritual depravity and inability. He explained to them the fact that salvation is altogether by God’s sovereign grace. And he insisted that no man is born again except that man who is joined to Christ by a living and vital union of faith. But those men who followed Christ only for material gain, or out of a religious curiosity, or because they had eaten the miraculously produced loaves, were offended at his doctrine. And ‘from that time many of his disciples went back and walked no more with him’.
Then our Lord turned to the twelve and asked this searching question: ‘Will ye also go away?’ Now I put the question to you. Many have gone away. It is likely that many more will yet do so. I fear that some who appear to be devoted today might become offended because of the gospel tomorrow and go back, go back to the world’s way. Will you?
But this I know, those who are truly born again, those who have experienced the grace of God, been redeemed by the blood of Christ and been called to life by the Holy Spirit cannot go away. Those who truly know Christ can never leave him. We know our desperate need of him. Therefore, God’s elect return with this satisfying answer: ‘Lord, to whom shall we go?’ Sometimes we are tempted and the world tugs hard at our hearts. But we know that no one can satisfy our need and our heart’s desire but Christ. Christ alone has the words of eternal life. He is the life itself and the way to life. We believe and are sure that Jesus of Nazareth is that Christ whom God has sent. He is God’s anointed Prophet, Priest and King. He is the promised Redeemer. He is the Son of the living God. The law cannot help us. The world cannot satisfy us. We must cling to Christ. He is all.”
~ Pastor Don Fortner
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“When true followers of Jesus Christ boldly state that we are not under the Law of Moses, we’re not saying we’re without law. Every believer is ‘Under The Law To Christ’ (1 Cor. 9:21). When we experience the miracle of The New Birth, the love of God is put in our hearts by the power of God the Holy Spirit (Rom. 5:5). ‘Faith, which works by love’ motivates God’s children (Gal. 5:6). ‘The love of Christ constraineth us’ (2 Cor. 5:14). God’s preachers don’t have to coerce true believers to come to church, to fellowship with one another, to minister to the needs of suffering members of the Body of Christ, to support the church with their monies. Hebrews 6:10 describes these involvements as a ‘labor of love’. True followers of Jesus Christ will obey our Sovereign King because we love Him. ‘...love is the fulfilling of the law’.”
~ Gene Harmon
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Let your thoughts of Christ be many, increasing more and more each day. He is never far from us as Paul tells us (Romans 10:6-8). The things Christ did were done many years ago, and they are long since past. “But,” says Paul, “the word of the gospel where these things are revealed and by which they are brought home to our souls is near us, even in our hearts, that is, if we are true believers and have received the word by faith.” So, the gospel exhibits Christ and all the benefits of His mediatory work to us. If, therefore, the Word is in our hearts, Christ is near us. If we at any time turn into ourselves to converse with the Word in us by meditation, we shall find Him ready to receive us into communion with Himself. By the light of the knowledge of Christ that we have by the Word, unexpected thoughts of Him will continually come to mind. But if our minds and hearts are filled with other things, how can we expect to have fellowship with Him in beholding His glory?
~ John Owen
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ANNOUNCEMENTS
· Lord willing, we will have Fellowship Dinner in the Fellowship Hall.
· During our worship service this afternoon, we will come to the Lord’s Table.
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FOOD FOR THOUGHT
IF THE LORD calls you, .. then he will also give you new Spiritual life, ears to hear His call and a brand-new heart to believe, love, and FOLLOW HIM! Where you MUST be born again, He will do it! You can’t, … and wouldn’t if you could!
GOD’S QUALIFICATION
God the Father didn’t choose to save those who qualified for His love, mercy, and grace. None do, and NONE EVER HAS!
(Romans 9:11) “For the children NOT YET born, having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to ELECTION might stand, not of works, but of him who
CALLETH” ….. “Jacob have I loved, but Easu have I hated.” (verse 9) (Romans 8:30) “and whom he CALLED, them he also JUSTIFIED” God’s blood-bought justification IS HIS purposed qualification! It is God how makes men to differ! These Justified BY HIM are “the called” according to His purpose” (Romans 8:28)
~ Elder Mike Loveless
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Hope drawn from Scripture
What says David? “I hope in Thy word.” “Remember the word unto Thy Servant, upon which Thou hast caused me to hope.” What says St. Paul? “Whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope” (Psalm 119:81,49; Romans 14:4).
If our hope is sound, we ought to be able to turn to some text or fact or doctrine of God’s Word as the source of it. Our confidence must arise from something which God has caused to be written in the Bible, for our learning and which our heart has received and believed.
~ J.C. Ryle
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“The sovereignty of God is the stumbling block on which thousands fall and perish; and if we go contending with God about His sovereignty it will be our eternal ruin. It is absolutely necessary that we should submit to God as an absolute sovereign, and the sovereign of our souls; as One who may have mercy on whom He will have mercy and harden whom He will.”
~ Jonathan Edwards
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“Without truth there is no regeneration; for it is by ‘the word of truth’ that we are begotten and born again (James 1:18; 1 Pet. 1:23). Without truth there is no justification; for we are justified by faith, which faith consists in crediting God's truth, and so, gives peace with God (Rom. 4:20-24; 5:1). Without the truth there is no sanctification; for the Lord himself says, ‘Sanctify them through your truth: your word is truth.’ And without the truth there is no salvation; for ‘God has chosen us to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth’ (2 Thess. 2:13). And as the truth is the instrumental cause of all these blessings, the divinely appointed means whereby they become manifested mercies, so truth enters into and is received by all the graces of the Spirit as they come forth into living exercise. Thus, without the truth, there is no faith; for the work of faith is to believe the truth. What is all the difference between faith and delusion? That faith believes God's truth, and delusion credits Satan's lies. ‘And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie, that they all might be damned who believe not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness’ (2 Thess. 2:11 - 12).”
--J. C. Philpot
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“The blood of the Son of God is precious to the sons of God. In context, ‘precious’ simply means that the children of the living God love the blood of Christ, depend upon the blood of Christ, and esteem the blood of Christ above all things. Were it not for the blood there would be no peace with God or peace in our hearts.”
~ Brother Tommy Robbins
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You ought to feel a sweet joy in the perpetual relationship that is now established between you and God, for Jesus is still your brother. You have been adopted, and God has never cancelled adoption yet. There is such a thing as regeneration, but there is not such a thing as the life then received dying out. If you are born unto God, you are born unto God. The stars may turn to coals, and the sun and moon may become clots of blood; but he that is born of God has life within him that can never end. He is God’s child, and God’s child he shall be. Therefore, let him walk at large like a child, an heir, a prince of the blood royal, who bears a relationship to the Lord that neither time nor eternity can ever destroy. This is why Jesus was made of a woman and made under the Law: that He might give us to enjoy the fullness of the privilege of adopted sons.
~ C. H. Spurgeon
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Let it be duly noted that it is through Jesus Christ [that] we are sons and heirs of God. Christ is our pattern in election-the One to Whose image we are predestinated to be conformed. Christ is God’s natural Son, and we become (by union with Christ) God’s legal sons. “That he might be the firstborn among many brethren” (Romans 8:29) signifies that God did set up Christ as the prototype and masterpiece and made us to be so many little copies and models of Him. Every dignity we possess, every blessing we enjoy-save our election when God chose us in Him-we owe to Christ. He is the virtual cause of our adoption.
~Arthur W. Pink
