Central Grace Church
3596 Franklin Street Rocky Mount, Virginia
December 19th 2021
9:30 am --------------------------------- The Rent Veil and Unrent Vesture – Luke 23:34, 45
10:00 am --------------------------------------The Salvation of a Malefactor – Luke 23:35-45
*** NO WEDNESDAY SERVICE THIS WEEK ***
Our Lord took our dear sister Barbara Ross from this vale of tears and present evil world to be with Him in Paradise. We rejoice for her and pray for and sympathize with her family at their loss. Visitation is today from 4:00 – 6:00pm at Flora Funeral Home. Graveside service tomorrow: 12:00 noon - 9625 Franklin St., cemetery behind St. James methodist building.
A Prayer to be Little, Low, and Nothing – by Thomas Watson, preacher 1620-1686
“O Lord, I humbly crave that Thou wilt let me be little in this world, that I may be great in another world; and low here, that I may be high for ever hereafter. Let me be low, and feed low, and live low, so I may live with Thee for ever; let me now be clothed with rags, so Thou wilt clothe me at last with Thy robes; let me now be set upon a dunghill, so I may at last sit with Thee upon Thy throne. Lord, make me rather gracious than great, inwardly holy than outwardly happy, and rather turn me into nothing, yea make me worse than nothing, rather than set me up for a time, that Thou mayest bring me low forever.”
Business As Usual– Matthew 24:37-39
Our Lord Jesus Christ speaking of His second coming in Matthew 24:37-39 informs us that men and women will be found just like they were in the days of Noah. Before God sent His flood of wrath and judgment people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage. In other words, they were conducting business as usual. Men and women gave no thought to the Eternal One, nor to eternity “until the flood came and took them ALL away, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.”
Lost sinner, it will be no different when Christ comes to earth again. Men and women will be conducting business as usual, giving no thought or consideration to their eternal souls. However, by the grace of God, there will be (as it was in the days of the flood) a remnant of chosen sinners saved. All who were in God’s Ark in Noah’s day, found secure refuge. All today who are found in God’s Ark, the Lord Jesus Christ, will also be saved from the eternal wrath of God to come.
(1 Thessalonians 1:10.) Who does God shut up in the Ark of Safety? Like Noah, only those who have found grace in the eyes of the Lord! (Genesis. 6:8) Has this amazing grace found you, or is it business as usual with you? – David Eddmenson
Christ is That Seed of Abraham – “And in thy seed shall al the nations of the earth be blessed” – Genesis 22:18
God promised Abraham, saying, “In thy seed shall all the generations of the earth be blessed.” Christ is that Seed of Abraham, saith Paul the apostle (Gal.3). He hath blessed all the world through the gospel. For where Christ is not, there remains the curse that fell on Adam as soon as he had sinned, so that they are in bondage, under the condemnation of sin, death, and hell. Against this curse the gospel now blesses all the world, inasmuch as it crieth openly unto all that acknowledge their sins and repent, saying, ‘Whosoever believeth on the Seed of Abraham shall be blessed.’, that is, he shall be delivered from sin, death, and hell, and shall henceforth continue righteous, and be saved for ever, as Christ Himself saith, in the eleventh of John, ‘He that believeth on Me shall never more die.’ – William Tyndale 1500-1536, martyred for translating Scripture
THE Word of God plainly, clearly, and thoroughly teaches that man by nature is contrary and opposed to God in every way. For example, God by nature is infinitely and immutably holy – man by nature is unchangeably and incurably sin; God is light – man by nature is darkness; God is truth – man’s whole life by nature, without God, is a lie; God is infinitely good – man by nature is inherently and unchangeably bad. In a word, man is a natural born enemy of God (Rom. 5:6-11). In fact, the natural man’s mind is enmity against God – not merely at enmity, but enmity itself! (Rom. 8:5-7). Thus men by nature love darkness and deception rather than God’s precious Word (John 3:19). Therefore man’s greatest need is to be reconciled to God.
It is a continual burden on my heart that so many preachers of our day, rather than preaching God as He is to sinners as they are (Sinners in the hands of an angry God), are preaching a god who is palatable, agreeable, suits the taste of fallen, human nature, a god whose chief attribute is love rather than holiness, a god who loves everybody the same, who gave His Son as a sacrifice for the sins of all mankind, a god who is trying to save all men. These preachers, for personal advantage and gain (the good opinion of men, and numbers), are preaching a false god, a false gospel, and thus giving their hearers a false hope. Their disciples have never been brought to bow before the true God as mercy seekers. How could they? They have never heard of the true God of the Bible. How can they ever be reconciled to God? Dear souls, God can only be worshiped by beggars, mercy seekers, before His sovereign throne of glory and grace.
Dear Brothers and Sisters, “Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that He will send forth laborers into His harvest.” (Matt. 9:38). -- Maurice Montgomery