Hymn of the Day
(tune: "Must Jesus Bear the Cross Alone" p.342)
We in the watery grave confess, The work of our dear Lord;
And thus make known our faith in Him, According to His word.
As underneath the ground Christ lay, A victim of our sins;
We sink beneath this symbol-grave, To show we were in Him.
He rose triumphant over sin, And we rose with Him too;
Up from the water we begin, To live a life that’s new.
What now we see in watery type, Was first worked in our hearts;
Thus, in His death and risen life, With Christ we share a part.
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Today’s Hymns: He Hideth My Soul - #258
To God Be the Glory – 449 - How Great Thou Art - 37
Special Dates: Cody Vande Hoef - 10
Fred Vlastuin – 10 - Cindy Hasche – 20
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We give thanks to God for the faith given to Barney Drenth to trust the Lord Jesus and we welcome him into the fellowship of our assembly.
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Sin is the source of all our problems and our Lord was named Jesus precisely because He came to save His people from their sin. I read many advertisements that claim that while other medical treatments address only symptoms, theirs address the “root causes” of this or that ailment. But none of them realize what the root cause is, and even if they did, there is no medicine that can address that malady: sin. While we are thankful for the benefits that come to us form the world of medicine, the best they can do is comfort us on our way to death. Christ truly dealt with the root cause of death (and all our troubles that lead up to it) by the sacrifice of Himself on the cross. In bearing our sins, He bore all that comes by sin, and when salvation is complete in us, there shall remain no vestige of sin in us nor lingering symptom of it. Hallelujah! What a Savior! -Joe
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Now the things which I write unto you,
behold, before God, I lie not. -Galatians 1:20
Paul, the elect vessel of God, was held in so little esteem by his own Galatians to whom he had preached Christ that it was necessary for him to swear an oath that he spoke the truth. If this happened to Paul, what business have we to complain when people doubt our words, or hold us in little regard, we who cannot begin to compare ourselves with the Apostle? -Martin Luther
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Suppose a man should say to you, "I will not open my store today because I do not know if God has decreed that I should sell my goods, or if God has ordained anyone to buy from me." Suppose that he added, "I shall neither eat nor drink this month, for God has fixed the length of my life, and I shall die at the appointed time." Would you not conclude that the man was either mentally ill or a total fool? Even so, the man who declares, "There is no need to search the Scriptures, seek the Lord, nor strive to enter the kingdom of God, for if I am elected and ordained to life, I will be saved," is also a fool! It is true "the election of grace hath obtained," and "as many as were ordained to eternal life believed," but let me tell you, in the matter of seeking the Lord, repenting toward God, and believing on Christ, you have no more concern with the secret counsels and purposes of God than you have in the length or quality of your life on earth. DO WHAT GOD COMMANDS YOU TO DO; believe on the Lord Jesus Christ; reach out (like the weary woman) and touch the Lord; cry out for mercy like Bartimaeus of old, and then you shall know your election of God. "God maketh rich and God maketh poor;" but the man who draws the paycheck is the man who goes faithfully to work; the man who enjoys eternal glory is the man who goes, believing, to Jesus Christ. -Henry Mahan
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The greatness of man's sin does but magnify the riches of God's free grace. Sins are debts, and God can as easily blot out a debt of many thousands as he can a lesser one. Therefore, let not the greatest sinner despair, but believe, and he shall find that where sin hath abounded, grace shall much more abound. -Thomas Brooks
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“Lord, If you are willing, you can make me clean” ... “I am willing.”
-Matthew 8:2,3
The question that plagues most of us is not, "Is God able to save me?" but, "Is God willing to save me?" Such a question seems reasonable when we consider how terribly we have rebelled against God. If I were standing on the gallows with a noose around my neck, I may well despair of being rescued if my rescue depended on the will of the judge whose son I had killed. In like manner, when we recognize that all our sins are against the only One who is able to save, and that all our sins are full of the rebellious venom that killed His Son, we might well wonder if He is willing to save. In fact, we would not have any reason to believe that God is willing to save were it not for His own Word. However, the very deed by which our race showed its utter contempt for God (the crucifixion) is the same deed by which God has shown His unimaginable and unexplainable love for sinners; as it is written, "God commended His love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us" (Romans 5:8). Some of you may say, "But this says nothing of me particularly. Is He willing to save me?" Listen to Paul, "This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief" (1 Timothy 1:15). If God was willing to save the Chief of Sinners, then no sin of yours can make Him unwilling to save you. God's willingness to save sinners is not dependent on anything sinners do or do not do. It is dependent on His own gracious nature which he reveals in His own Word, "The grace of God which bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men" (Titus 2:11) -Joe