September 4^th, 2016

9:30 am -----------------------------------------Many Believed In His Name – John 2:23

10:00 am ------------------------------------------------He Knows All Men – John 2:24-25

6:00 pm-------------------------------------- Beloved Be Mindful & Beware – II Peter 3

Nursery Today: Second Service: Polly P. , Alt. -- Robin C.

Lawn Mowing: This week: Paul M., Next Week: Ron F.

Birthdays: September: 7^th – Mindy Mahan, 8^th – Mac Torrence, 15^th – Helen Canterbury

Confessing Christ

Are men correct in thinking that because they made a profession of faith some years back, were baptized, joined a local church and adopted a sound system of theology, they are confessing Christ before men. We are going to find out someday, to our eternal woe, that confessing Christ before men involves a great deal more than an isolated decision. Confessing Christ before men is a constant identification with Christ in a world that does not know or love Christ. To be identified with Christ is to be so closely associated with Him that His interests are your interests; His friends are your friends; His enemies are your enemies; His glory is your glory; His will is your will; and His Word is your rule of life. "Where I am, there ye may be also" John 14:3. Where is Christ? Those confessing Him and identified with Him will be there also! We are crucified with Christ, buried with Him in baptism, walking with Him in the light of the Scripture, righteousness and truth, at His feet in humility, assembled with His people in worship and praise, bearing His reproach, forgiving as He forgave, loving as He loved, and waiting for His return. In other words confessing Christ before men is to be so closely associated with Christ, that one is called in truth by others — A Christian! -- Henry Mahan

THE RIVER OF DEATH . . . has been a terror to many; yea the thoughts of it have frightened me. But now, in Christ, I stand easy. I am going to see that HEAD which was crowned with thorns and that FACE which was spit upon for me. I go where I shall live by sight and be with Him whose company is my delight. I have loved to hear my Lord spoken of; now I am going to see Him. I have seen the print of His shoe upon the earth; now I am going to sit at His feet. I have read His Word; now I am going to hear His voice. I have beheld His world, beautiful, though with sin; now I am going to dwell in His heaven where sin can never enter. – John Bunyan

Rejoicing in The Lord -- “Rejoice in the Lord alway: and again I say, Rejoice.” -- Philippians 4:4

Believers in the Lord Jesus do rejoice in the Lord always. They rejoice that His grace is always sufficient, that His blood ever cleanses them from all sin, that by His righteousness imputed to them they are justified before the law, that His love for them never fails, that by His providence He continually works all things together for their good, to them who are the called according to His purpose, that His intercession before the Father on their behalf is continual and rejoice that their names are written in heaven. – Marvin Stalnaker, pastor, Katy Baptist Church, Fairmont, WV

“But Jesus did not commit himself unto them, because He knew all men, and needed not that any should testify of man: for He knew what was in man.” - John 2:24-25

When the people saw the miracles of Christ, many claimed to believe in Him and join themselves to Him, but they were only dazzled and impressed by His miracles. Their profession was not from the heart, and He knew it (1 Kings 8:39). These men were ‘stony-ground’ hearers. There were only intellectually convinced and our Lord clearly discerned this. He would not commit himself to them, because He knew them all. ‘Man’s affections may be stirred, man’s intelligence may be informed, man’s conscience may be convicted,’ but God must give him a new heart and new life. Only a new creation avails before God. Men must be born again (John 3:3,7).