March 3^rd 2024

9:30 am -------------------------A Peculiar People in Perilous Times – 1 Peter 2:9 & 2 Timothy 3

10:00 am ------------------------------------ A Servant Forever – Exodus 21:1-6

Wednesday: 7:00 pm

The Melting of God’s Word

We see so little true commitment, so much indifference, and so few dedicated people in today’s religious world that we may be prone to accept this attitude as normal. But it is not so! David wrote in Psalm 147:18, “He sendeth out His word and MELTETH THEM.” Paul wrote in Romans 8:6, “To be carnally minded is death; but to be SPIRITUALLY MINDED is life and peace.” If God is pleased to move in love and grace upon a person, the very life of Christ is formed in him and UNBELIEF is driven out by God-given-faith. INDIFFERENCE departs at the revelation of God’s glory in the face of Christ. IGNORANCE vanishes as Christ is revealed in His work of redemption as Just and Justifier. SELF-PRIDE disappears before His grace and mercy. SELF-RIGHTEOUSNESS has not the slightest claim in the light of His perfect obedience. SELF-LOVE takes an awful beating in the light of His love for us. No! It would be IMPOSSIBLE for a true child of His great, invincible grace to be indifferent or uncommitted after the melting of His word and the revelation of His love. – Henry Mahan

The Bible – some quotes by Martin Luther

-- It is a miracle how God has so long preserved His Book! How great and glorious it is to have the Word of God!

-- I am well satisfied with the gift of the Holy Scriptures, which give me abundant instruction and all I need to know both for

this life and for that which is to come.

-- There is not a word in the Bible which can be understood without reference to the cross.

-- As we go to the cradle to find the baby, so we go to the Scriptures only to find Christ.

-- Hearing and reading Scripture is to hear the Word from Christ’s mouth.

-- The Word of God is perfect; It is precious and pure; It is Truth itself.

-- The world is conquered by the Word.

-- Pause at every verse of Scripture and shake, as it were, every limb of it, that if possible some fruit at least may drop down.

Prayer

-- Prayer is the very natural breath of faith. – William Gurnall

-- He who runs from God in the morning will scarcely find Him the rest of the day. – John Bunyan

-- If you would have God hear you when you pray, you must hear Him when He speaks. – Thomas Brooks

-- It is the business of tailors to make clothes and of cobblers to mend shoes, so it is the business of Christians to pray. --Luther

-- To ask in the Name of Christ is . . . to set aside our own will and bow to the perfect will of God. – Arthur Pink

-- Prayer is a sincere, sensible, affectionate pouring out of the soul to God, through Christ, in the strength and assistance of

the Spirit, for such things as God has promised. – John Bunyan

-- What an excellent ground of hope and confidence we have when we reflect upon three things in prayer. . .the Father’s love,

the Son’s merit, and the Spirit’s power! – Thomas Manton

-- He who has learned to pray has learned the greatest secret of a holy and happy life. – William Law

-- Men of God are always men of prayer – Henry Mahan

Preaching

-- The Gospel is the clear manifestation of the mystery of Christ. – John Calvin

-- The excellency of a sermon lies in the plainest discoveries and liveliest applications of Jesus Christ. – John Flavel

-- He is the best preacher, not that tickles the ear, but that breaks the heart. – Thomas Brooks

-- A man cannot be a faithful preacher until he preaches Christ for Christ’s sake. – Robert M. M’Cheyne

-- God had but one Son in the world and He made Him a preacher. – Thomas Goodwin

-- “For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God . . .

For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching