CLOSING HYMN – My Faith Has Found a Resting Place – p. 228
Birthdays: Rosa Jones – Feb. 4th
BRIEF BUSINESS MEETING NEXT SUNDAY AT 9:45 a.m. – Concerning expenditures for maintenance of our church building.
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Survey this treasure-house of grace. How rich! How full! The believer may say, “This heritage is all my own.” Measure, if it be possible, the golden chain, which extends from one hand of God in eternity past to the other in eternity to come. Every link is a blessing. Behold the starry canopy. The glittering orbs outshine all beauty and exceed all number. Such is the firmament of Christ. It is studded with blessings. But millions of worlds are less than the least; and millions of tongues are weak to tell them. Mark how they sparkle in the eye of faith. There are constellations of pardons. "In Him we have redemption through His blood, even the forgiveness of sins"(Col. 1:14). —Henry Law
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THE SUBJECT OF OUR SONGS
There are lots of reasons that so many of the hymns we love to sing pertain to the grace of God. Divine grace chose us unto salvation, grace put us among the people of God, grace redeemed us, grace paid our indebtedness, grace made us righteous, grace gave us spiritual life, grace rescued us from the clutches of the evil one, grace effectually called us to believe on Christ, grace keeps us safe from all dangers, grace provides for us through life, grace upholds us in the midst of difficult trials, grace guards us through life and grace will never forsake us; it will lift us up to heaven and it is all "to the praise of the glory of His grace" (Ephesians 1:6). --Pastor Jim Byrd
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“And Jesus answering said unto him, Suffer it to be so now: for thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness. Then he suffered him.” (Matt. 3:15)
Water baptism by immersion is a public confession of our identification with the Lord Jesus Christ. Though we confess many things concerning Him, chief among them is our union with Christ in His death. The same is true of the Lord’s table, we do show His death till He come. There are many things that could be meant by Christ’s words to John when He said, “suffer it to be so now for thus it becometh us to fulfill all righteousness.” In this baptism, Christ Himself showed us what the of righteousness is, His death. His being obedient in baptism demonstrated the way He would fulfill all righteousness – by His being obedience unto death, even the death of the cross. This is also the way we are made the righteousness of God in Him. It is through our having died in Him and our resurrection in Him. —Pastor Gary Shepard
The world is full of kind, sincere, generous, and moral people (moral according to man’s view of morality), but who do not know and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ for all salvation, forgiveness, righteousness, and eternal life. In all of their so-called virtues, they still rely upon themselves, rather than the grace of God in Christ, to make the difference between saved and lost. This is the religion of works-salvation, and it is an abomination to God. It seeks to rob Him of His glory in the salvation of sinners by Jesus Christ and to claim some glory for themselves. This is deadly religion. —Copied
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THE GIFT AND GIFTS OF GOD
“For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast.” (Ephesians 2:8-9). Some argue that “the gift of God” in this verse refers to salvation but not to faith. They claim that everyone has the potential to believe the Gospel, but only those who, of their own free will, cooperate by exercising faith will be saved. This is contrary to the Word of God which states clearly that we all fell by Adam in to sin and death, and, as a result, we are born spiritually dead in trespasses and sins. Naturally speaking, we have no potential to believe God. And when the Spirit of God brings us under the Gospel of God’s grace in Christ, He imparts spiritual life and brings us to faith in Christ and true repentance. “The gift of God” in Ephesians 2:8 refers to all of salvation, which includes faith. All of salvation is “the gift of God. Both faith and repentance are GIFTS of God’s grace given to His chosen people. Both faith and repentance spring from the power of the resurrection life of the Lord Jesus Christ. This is the power of righteousness established by Christ in His obedience unto death as the Surety, Substitute, and Redeemer of His people. Where God has imputed Christ’s righteousness to a sinner, there will always be spiritual life imparted to that sinner in the power of the Holy Spirit, and that spiritual life will bring forth both faith in Christ and repentance of dead works and idolatry. Neither faith nor repentance are products of man’s innate goodness (for he as none – Romans 3:10-12), nor products of man’s power or will, for “the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him” (1 Corinthians 2:14). The fact is that every blessing we possess in salvation is the gift of God given to us by virtue of the power and merits of Christ (Ephesians 1:3). We who are truly saved cannot take credit for any of these blessings. They ALL are the GIFT and GIFTS of God by His grace based on blood of Christ. —Pastor Bill Parker
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