January 16^th - 2022

10:00 am -------------------------------------------------Christ, The Beloved Son – Genesis 37:3

Wednesday: 7:00 pm ----------------------------------Christ: the Passover Lamb – Exodus 12

Stand Firm For the Truth – Maurice Montgomery

TRY to remember these words of Martin Luther as you live out your days in this religious world: “If I profess with loudest voice and clearest exposition every portion of the truth of God except precisely that point where the world and the devil are at that moment attacking, then I am not confessing Christ, however boldly I may be professing Him! . . . Where the battle rages, there the loyalty of the soldier is proved; and to be steady on all the battle-front besides is merely flight and disgrace if he flinches at that point.”

Dear souls, though there is hardly any doctrine of Scripture that modern religion firmly stands for, yet the most basic and essential doctrines of God’s Word, they firmly and unitedly stand against. Modern religion vehemently opposes the truth of God’s sovereign, almighty, saving grace. They oppose the five points of what we call Calvinism – which is God-exalting, God-honoring, gospel truth. They hate the Bible doctrines of man’s Total Depravity, God’s Unconditional Election of men unto salvation, the Limited Atonement of Jesus Christ, God’s Irresistible Grace, and the Preservation and Perseverance of God’s elect. (They especially hate the truth of Limited Atonement or Particular Redemption).

Do not try to push these dear and precious truths of God upon anyone, but do not ever be embarrassed or ashamed to own these truths, though you stand all alone in a crowd of unbelievers. John Calvin once said, “Even a dog will bark if his master’s vineyard is being over run.” Be zealous for the good opinion of God and care little for the good opinion of men. I have been called a “cultist,” a “different kind of Baptist,” and even a “Jim Jones,” but none of these things move me away from owning God’s precious, eternal truths. God’s Word is more than mere doctrine, even divine doctrine – in a sense it is our life! Let us not be mere professors of Christ, but daily confess our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ, in both doctrine and practice.

Waiting on the Lord – Thomas Harding

“My soul waiteth for the Lord more than they that watch for the morning:

I say, more than they that watch for the morning” (Psalm 130: 5-6).

Waiting on the Lord does not imply idleness on the part of the believer. His people are active in the kingdom of God; zealous of good works (Titus 2:14); diligent about their Father's business (Luke 2:49); vigorous in spreading the gospel by whatever means the Lord supplies (Acts 5:41-42). Our God highly disapproves of idleness; "Woe to them that are at ease in Zion" (Amos 6:1). However, we do wait on Him for direction, open doors, liberty, wisdom, and for results. Here is the source, strength and the sweetness of our waiting, "In His WORD I do hope." (Psalm 130:5) His WORD is always successful (Isaiah 55:11); His WORD is always true (Psalm 33:4); His WORD is living (John 1: 14) and powerful (Heb. 4:12). The apostle Paul declared that he labored hard in preaching the WORD and this by the grace of God (1 Cor. 15:10). But he waited on the Lord for the blessing and the results. Listen to what he said, "I have planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase" (1 Cor. 3:6). Let us be diligent laborers in the kingdom of God, always striving to preach the WORD, Jesus Christ, knowing our labor in the Lord is not in vain (1 Cor.15:58). But let us be just as diligent to wait on the Lord for the results. His blessings are worth waiting for (Eph. 1:3).

The School of Painful Experience