July 15, 2007

(Isaiah 45:20-22)

MORNING WORSHIP:

10:00 Bible Study: Video sermon by Pastor Bill Parker

11:00 Service: Speaker, Mark Pannell, Eager Avenue Grace Church

Birthdays: Frank Jones – July 21^st.

“What Are Your Thoughts Of Christ?”

What are your thoughts concerning the Lord Jesus Christ, His person (WHO HE IS) and His work (WHAT HE ACTUALLY ACCOMPLISHED)? Was Christ’s perfect life of obedience, in every “jot and tittle” of God’s law, merely an example to sinful men as to how they should live in order to gain or maintain eternal life, or did Christ’s perfect obedience have as its singular purpose to establish the righteousness required in order to enter into God’s holy presence? Was Christ’s death at Calvary merely an attempt by God to place all men in a savable condition if they would fulfill certain conditions, either by their faith or morality, or was Christ’s death at Calvary the actual accomplishment in time of the justification of all God’s elect, who were given to Christ by God the Father in the everlasting covenant of grace? The way you answer these two questions reveals the hope of your salvation, and the hope of your salvation reveals the God you are worshipping.

The Scriptures make it clear that all God’s elect children have a high opinion of the Lord Jesus Christ, when taught of the Spirit of God. Peter wrote:”Unto you therefore which believe He is precious,” (I Pet.2:7a). Think for a moment about those two questions in the opening paragraph. First of all, the Lord Jesus did much more than simply give us an example of how we should live our lives. In fact, if you could live a perfect life, AND YOU CAN’T, it would still do you absolutely no good- “Therefore by the deeds of the law (including a perfect life of obedience) there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin.”(Rom.3:20) God cannot and will not lower His standard of perfect obedience. For this reason, He sent His precious Son into this world to perfectly obey the law in thought, word, and deed, for all those elect sinners God the Father chose in Him. Every step Christ took in this life was not for Himself, but as a Representative for His people. All the obedience God required of His elect, Christ fulfilled in their place-“For as by one man’s disobedience (Adam) many (all Adam represented) were made sinners, so by the obedience of one (Christ) shall many (all Christ represented) be made righteous.”(Rom.5:19)

Secondly, Christ’s death at Calvary wasn’t an attempt to justify sinners if they fulfilled certain conditions, but the actual justification of all of God’s elect by way of satisfaction. God required the eternal condemnation and death of all those who sinned, including God’s elect. In the person of His Son at Calvary, God the Father received perfect satisfaction-“The soul that sinneth, IT SHALL DIE,”(Ezek.18:20a). When the Lord Jesus cried, “IT IS FINISHED”, He alone drank damnation dry for each and every one of His elect, obtaining for them complete justification. Not one for whom Christ died at Calvary can perish, because they have been made “the righteousness of God in Him.” In closing, WHAT THINK YE OF CHRIST?

Richard Warmack - Pastor of Grace Baptist in Ruston, La.

GROANING UNDER THIS BODY OF SIN

“For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven,” 2 Corinthians 5:2

Preachers today are telling their hearers and followers that once the Spirit of God regenerates them, there is created in t hem a new, sinless, perfect nature just as holy and pure as God Himself, and it is that sinless nature that makes them fit for heaven. Someone evidently forgot to inform the apostle Paul.

His language here, and in Romans 7, is one of laboring under the body of sin, and awaiting the day in glory when he, as all others of the Lord’s redeemed, will be made perfectly like Christ Himself, 1 John 3:2. In the mean time, the Lord’s redeemed continue to groan (sigh), desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven, that perfect body and soul that awaits us at the final resurrection.

Our Lord Jesus bore the legal body of sin away in His death, Romans 6:6. The old man (our condemnation in Adam) was crucified with Him, and t h a t body of sin was destroyed that we should no longer serve sin, once the Spirit of God has revealed Christ in us. In His death, Christ delivered His own from the curse of sin, but the presence of sin has not changed, having been born into this world as sons of Adam. Not to serve sin, in no way means that we are sinless. The truth is we are in no way to be subject to its dictates, nor its guilt, because Christ removed the curse for us. And yet, the reality is that we continue to be sinners and must continually confess with David, “Against Thee, and Thee only have I sinned, and done this evil in Thy sight,” Psalm 51:4. It is the Spirit of God that brings us to confess continually our sinfulness before the Lord. He truly is perfect and holy, not us!

It is times like these that we are caused to look again outside ourselves to our only hope- the blood and righteousness of Christ. It is in love that the Lord chastens us with our sin, Hebrews 12:6. It is but a small reminder of what it took for the Lord to put away our sin. “By His stripes, we are healed,” Isaiah 53:5. With so complete a redemption and justification by His blood and righteousness alone, we are all prone to treat the sin lightly for which He died. In life, don’t we tend to take for granted those things that are free, and become accustomed to them as if we are entitled to them? It is no less true of those spiritual blessings that we enjoy in Christ, by His grace alone.

Some of the strongest testimonies of God’s love for His children are when He brings the soul low by sin, difficulties, and discouragements. God’s purpose in these is not only to remind us of our own creature weaknesses, but more importantly His loving and gracious faithfulness toward us in spite of our sin, because of Christ’s shed blood. Jeremiah wrote, “it is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the Lord,” Lamentations 3:26. May it ever be so with us!