CALL TO WORSHIP (Tune – When I Can Read My Title Clear – p. 497)
O, God, my heart is fixed on Thee, to sing and give Thee praise; I’ll praise Thee, Lord, among Thy saints, as we our anthems raise As we our anthems raise; as we our anthems raise. I’ll praise Thee, Lord, among Thy saints, as we our anthems raise.
I’ll praise Thee for Thy mercy great, that reaches down to me, In Christ my Savior, I am blessed with all salvation free. With all salvation free; with all salvation, In Christ my Savior, I am blessed with all salvation free.
I’ll praise Thee for Thy righteousness as sent from Thee above; Thy law and justice satisfied in union with Thy love. In union with Thy love; in union with Thy love; Thy law and justice satisfied in union with Thy love.
I’ll praise Thee for Thy cleansing Word that sanctifies my soul; As in my heart Thou art glorified in Christ who makes me whole; In Christ who makes me whole; in Christ who makes me whole; As in my heart Thou art glorified in Christ who makes me whole.
TODAY’S SERVICES – Messages by Pastor Bill Parker BIBLE CLASS – 10:00 a.m. –The Potter and the Clay – Romans 9:21-24
CLOSING HYMN – Alas! And Did My Savior Bleed? – p. 110
Birthdays: Felton Riggins – Sept. 11th
We welcome Judy Fletcher into the fellowship of our local church. Having confessed Christ in believer’s baptism under the true Gospel, Judy comes by statement of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Our prayer is that we will be a blessing to Judy, and that she will be a blessing to us.
"Thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea." (Micah 7:19)
When God takes all our iniquities with His own hand, and casts them with His own arm into the depths of the sea, they will never come out of those depths to witness against the family of God in the great and terrible day. Your sins now may seem to be all alive in your breast, and every one of them to bring accusation upon accusation against you. This sin is crying out for vengeance, and that for punishment. This slip, this fall, this backsliding, this foolish word, this wrong action, are all testifying against you in the court of conscience. Do what you may, be where you may, live how you may, watch and pray how you may, keep silent and separate from the world or even from your own family how you may, sin still moves, lives, acts, works, and often brings you into guilt and bondage. But if God has had mercy upon us, He has cast all our sins with His own hands into the depths of the sea, and those sins have no more eyes to look at us with angry indignation, have no more tongues to speak against us in voices of accusation, have no more life in them to rise up and testify that they have been committed by us, that God’s law has been broken by them, and that therefore we are under its condemnation and curse. And there is no truth in God’s word more certain than the complete forgiveness of sins, and the presentation of the church of Christ at the great day faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy. —Augustus Toplady
The world cannot make a right judgment of believers. Only the spiritual person discerns the things of God and the people of God (1 Cor. 2:14). The faults and failings of the godly are seen by everyone, but their graces are too often unseen. “The royal daughter is all glorious within” (Psa. 45:13). When you are able to make a RIGHT JUDGMENT of other true believers, you will want nothing better than to be one of them and forever to be in their company. “To the saints that are in the earth, and to the excellent, in whom is all my delight” (Psa. 16:3). —John Owen
“Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God: therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew Him not.” (1 John 3:1)
Christ told Nicodemus, “You must be born again” (John 3:7). This new birth is the fruit and result of the work of Christ in His death, burial, and resurrection. It consists of regeneration (the impartation of spiritual life to a dead sinner) and conversion (a change of life within the regenerated sinner). As one old writer said, “Regeneration is a change wrought by the power of the Holy Spirit, in the understanding, will and affections of a sinner; which is the commencement of a new kind of life, and which gives another direction to his judgment, desires, pursuits, and conduct.” —Copied
But God be thanked, that ye were the servants of sin, but ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you. Being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness.
—Romans 6:17-18
CHRIST APART FROM DOCTRINE?
Much is said in regard to preaching Christ, and not doctrine. But how is it possible to preach Christ apart from doctrine? Christ is not an abstraction, but a living, personal Being. If, then, we preach Him, we must preach His divinity, His humanity, and His mediatorship between God and man. If we preach what He has done, we must declare His humiliation, His death, and the atonement He has therein made for sin. If we preach Him as He is, we must proclaim His enthronement in heaven, His intercession with the Father, and His Headship of the church, with all the laws and ordinances He has instituted for it. And if we preach Him as He shall be, we must affirm the final triumph of His Gospel, His second coming, the resurrection and the judgment, and the glory to which He will raise His people with Himself. It is not possible to preach Christ apart from doctrine; for His incarnation and vicarious death presuppose the fall and depravity and guilt of men, and the need of regeneration, justification, and sanctification; and His resurrection and glorification equally involve the resurrection and glorification of the church. ALL THE DOCTRINES OF SCRIPTURE THUS CENTER IN CHRIST, and WE PREACH HIM ONLY AS WE PREACH THEM.
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