March 20^th 2022

9:30 am -----------------------------------------------Christ: His Lovers, Friends & Foes – 1 Samuel 18-20

10:00 am ---- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- -- A God Who Hides Himself – Isaiah 45:17

“No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.” – Matthew 6:24

The orders of the two masters are diametrically opposed. The one commands you to walk by faith, the other by sight; the one to be humble, the other to be proud; the one to set your affection on things above, the other to set it on the things on the earth; the one to look at things unseen and eternal, the other to look at the things seen and temporal; the one to have your conversation in Heaven, the other to cleave to the dust; the one to be careful for nothing, the other to be full of anxiety; the one to be content with such things as ye have, the other to enlarge your desires as hell; the one to be ready to distribute, the other to withhold for self; the one to look on things of others, the other to look out for one’s own things; the one to seek happiness in the Creator, the other to seek happiness in the creature. Is it not plain that there is no serving two such masters? “If ye love the one, ye must hate the other; if ye cleave to the one, you must despise the other.” You cannot serve God and mammon! To serve mammon, to lay up treasures on earth, is to make present, sensible, worldly things, the great subjects of our thoughts, the great object of our affection. To serve God, to lay up treasures in Heaven, is just to make the things divine and heavenly the great subjects of our thoughts, and the great objects of our affection. The two things are obviously incompatible. Scripture says the covetous man is an idolater. The friendship of the world is enmity with God; and, whosoever will be a friend of the world, must be an enemy of God. – William Jay

Out Of The Heart Are The Issues Of Life – Proverbs 4:23

LIFE begins when the HEART starts beating. Life ends when the HEART stops. So it is with spiritual life. Spiritual (eternal) life begins when God takes away the stony heart, the heart that is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked, and gives “a new heart”. (Ezek.36:26). There is no life without heart.

The heart is the real man. The heart is the seat of affections, convictions, desires and feelings. Real faith comes from the heart, for “With the HEART man believeth unto righteousness.” Real faith is not simply mental but is a heart love. There can be a pretended faith, a mere spoken faith, a mere intellectual belief in facts and doctrines without real heart love for God, Christ, the brethren and holiness. Doctrine only in the head will produce an unfeeling, unloving, uncaring and unemotional man. The love of God shed abroad in the heart will produce a man of many emotions. Love for God, Christ, the Truth, holiness, the brethren; is rooted and comes from the heart. There is no life without heart. There is no faith without heart. Faith is founded on the Word of God and that faith has feelings.

Though we are not saved by feelings, yet no one is saved who does not have them. Feelings come from the heart. Feelings are the reaction of the heart being touched by the Word, the Spirit of God. Show me a man who does not feel his sinfulness, who does not feel a need for Christ, who does not feel joyful upon hearing the gospel, who does not feel deeply thankful and grateful for all his blessings, who does not feel sadness, pain, joy, happiness, gladness, relief, fear and all other emotions at some time upon hearing the gospel . . . the Word of Life . . and I will show you a man WHO HATH NOT LIFE. Show me someone who never mourns, weeps nor laughs upon hearing the life giving sound, and I will show you someone who is dead. Open up a grave; laugh, cry, shout at the man and you will get no reaction. The man is dead; he has no feelings. Laugh, cry and shout to the living and they will respond. Show me a woman who is neither cold nor hot upon hearing the gospel, and I will show you a woman whom God will spue out of His mouth. Show me a person who does not reveal a heartfelt love, a first love for Christ, His gospel, His people, and I will show you someone who loves the world and has missed Christ. Show me a man who claims to preach the gospel, who does not go forth with weeping, bearing the precious seed, and I will show you a man who is a hireling, a pretender, who will bring in no sheeves (Psalm 126:5-6).