June 1^st, 2014

Today’s Services:

9:30 am&s hy;.. ..... ..... ..... ..... ..... ..... ..... ..... ..... ..... ..... ..... ..... ..... ..... ..... ..... ..... Why Doesn't God Speak Out Loud -- II Peter 1:16-21

10:00 am ............................................................................................Whom Do You Say That Jesus Is? -- Matthew 16:13-20

Birthdays: June: 2^nd -- Charles Hudson, 8^th -- Ty Pettry, 12^th -- Barb Pettry

To Our Congregation: The Lord willing, I will be traveling to Great Falls, Montana on thursday, where I will be preaching this weekend for the New Covenant Grace Church where brother John Mitchell was pastor for many years. As most of you know, brother Mitchell is unable to preach due to illness and the church there is looking for a pastor. Several of us pastors have gone out there to preach and it is always a blessing. Pray for this trip. In my absence brother Tom Harding, pastor of Zebulon Baptist Church, Pikeville, Kentucky, will preach for you.

God So Loved The World - John 3:16

We warn you against those who say that “God loved the world” means “God loved every one alike.” They tell people indiscriminately that “John 3:16 means that God loved you. You may substitute your name for the word world in John 3:16.”

They know this is not true! For example, they know that God Himself declared, “Jacob I have loved, but Esau I have hated” (Malachi 1:2 / Romans 9:13). Despite knowing this, we can imagine them saying to Esau, as they say to all others, “Smile, God loves you – for God loves everyone! When you read John 3:16, change the word world to your name, so that it reads ‘For God so loved Esau ....’”

Hear me well! Neither Esau nor all the other unrepentant and unbelieving wicked people whom God declares that He hates are in the world loved by God, and to which He gave His only begotten Son for their salvation.

Furthermore, there is more than one world on this earth. And the world loved by God is distinguished from another world in the High Priestly prayer of Jesus Christ to His Father recorded in John chapter seventeen. That other world is the world for which Jesus Christ refused to pray, and the world from which God removed His people and gave to Christ in order that He might save them (John 17:6-9): “I have manifested Your name to the men whom You have given Me out of the world. They were Yours, You gave them to Me [see Ephesians 1:3-6] .... they have believed that You sent Me. I pray for them. I do not pray for the world but for those whom You have given Me, for they are Yours.”

They who misrepresent God’s love to His world should remember that among the people God hates and abominates is “a false witness who speaks lies” (Proverbs 6:16-19).

All who are in this world loved by God will confess: “In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. ... And we have known and believed the love that God has for us. ... We love Him because He first loved us” (1 John 4:9f, 16, 19). Is this your confession? -- Daniel Parks, St. Croix, USVI

Note: The following article was in our bulletin many years ago and I saw it again in Bible Baptist Church's bulletin. It bears re-printing, so much more in these very last of the last days. How relevant it is to our day. For anyone who does not know the author, John Newton was a preacher in England, born in 1725, died in 1807. He was also a gifted hymn writer; the one he is most noted for is "Amazing Grace."

When God is Displeased With a People

When God is exceedingly displeased with a people, it is not necessary, in order to their punishment, that He should bury them alive by an earthquake, or destroy them by lightening. If He only leaves them to themselves, withdraws His blessings from their counsels, and His restraint from their passions, their ruin follows of course, according to the necessary order and connection of causes and effects…..