Millsite Baptist Church
Mike Walker, Pastor
April 16th, 2023
Bible Classes 10:30 Worship Service 11:30 am Wednesday night 7:30
Self-righteous souls on works rely,
And boast their moral dignity;
But when I lisp a song of praise,
Grace is the note my soul shall raise.
'Twas grace that quickened me when dead,
And grace my soul to Jesus led;
Grace brings me pardon for my sin,
‘Tis grace subdues my lusts within.
'Tis grace that sweetens every cross,
"'Tis grace supports in ev’ry loss;
In Jesus' grace my soul is strong,
Grace is my hope and Christ my song.
'Tis grace defends when danger's near;
And ‘tis by grace I persevere;
'Tis grace constrains my soul to love,
Free grace is all they sing above.
Thus, ‘tis alone of grace I boast,
And 'tis alone in grace I trust;
For all that's past, grace is my theme,
For what's to come, 'tis still the same.
Through endless years of grace I'll sing,
Adore and bless my heavenly King;
I'll cast my crown before His throne,
Saved by His sov’reign grace alone!
William Knapp 1698 - 1768
The United States of America is a nation which has been blessed of God, perhaps unlike any other, with great providential mercies. We have enjoyed prosperity as no other nation in the world. We have lived in the lap of luxury, freedom and safety. There has never been a nation more blessed than ours has been historically with the gospel. God has sent prophet after prophet, generation after generation, through the length and breadth of this land. Israel had peculiar privileges indeed; but their providential blessings were nothing compared to ours.
But, like Israel of old, throughout our history we have provoked the Lord to jealousy. It seems to me, both as I read history and from the experience of my own brief lifetime, that the more greatly and signally the Lord has showered his mercies upon us, the more blatantly we have turned from him.
Truly, we must acknowledge as did the psalmist, “He hath not dealt with us after our sins; nor rewarded us according to our iniquities.” Like the Jews of old, we have mocked the messengers of God, despised his words and misused his prophets (2Ch_36:16).
I am astonished that God has not destroyed our nation. Our streets run red with blood, blood shed by unrestrained, undisciplined children. This generation of children and young people has educated barbarians for parents. Parents these days are more like brute beasts and crawling reptiles that lay their eggs, bury them in the sands of the world and forget them. Parents who refuse to train and discipline their children, who refuse to mold their characters for good, are nothing more than breeding beasts. My apologies to the beasts!
Indeed, it is customary these days for men and women, boys and girls simply to breed like dogs, first with one and then another. Common adultery has brought about an utter disregard for marriage, law and order. Fornication is smiled at as a light thing. It is as common for girls to have babies out of wedlock as it is for dogs to scratch fleas. Homosexuality is not only tolerated, it is accepted, promoted and taught in the classrooms of our schools!
As it has been throughout history when nations have abandoned God for their lusts, abandoned his way for pleasure, abandoned law and order in the name of freedom, human life has become so cheap in our society that abortion is more common than getting your teeth cleaned. Unborn infants are regarded as unwanted fat to be sucked away as desired. A man may easily get a longer prison sentence for killing your dog than for raping your wife or killing you.
---Don Fortner
"There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear: because fear has torment. He that fears is not made perfect in love."
1John 4:18.
Who that has felt it will deny, that "fear has torment"? The legal fear of death, of judgment, and of condemnation the fear engendered by a slavish view of the Lord's commandments a defective view of the believer's relation to God imperfect conceptions of the finished work of Christ unsettled apprehensions of the great fact of acceptance yielding to the power of unbelief the retaining of guilt upon the conscience, or the influence of any concealed sin, will fill the heart with the torment of fear. Some of the most eminent of God's people have thus been afflicted: this was Job's experience “I am afraid of all my sorrows." "Even when I remember, I am afraid, and trembling takes hold on my flesh." "When I consider Him, I am afraid of Him." So also David “What time I am afraid, I will trust in You." "My flesh trembles for fear of You; I am afraid of Your judgments." But "perfect love casts out fear:" he that fears is not perfected in the love of Christ. The design and tendency of the love of Jesus shed abroad in the heart is to lift the soul out of all its "bondage through fear of death," and its ultimate consequences, and soothe it to rest on that glorious declaration, triumphing in which, many have gone to glory, "There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus." See the blessed spring from where flows a believer's victory over all bondage fear from Jesus: not from his experience of the truth, not from evidence of his acceptance and adoption, not from the work of the Spirit in his heart, blessed as it is but from out of, and away from, himself even from Jesus. The blood and righteousness of Christ, based upon the infinite dignity and glory of His person, and wrought into the experience of the believer by the Holy Spirit, expels from the heart all fear of death and of judgment, and fills it with perfect peace. O you of fearful heart! why these anxious doubts, why these tormenting fears, why this shrinking from the thought of death, why these distant, hard, and unkind thoughts of God? Why this prison house why this chain? You are not perfected in the love of Jesus, for "perfect love casts out fear:" you are not perfected in that great truth, that Jesus is mighty to save, that He died for a poor sinner, that His death was a perfect satisfaction to Divine justice; and that without a single meritorious work of your own, just as you are, poor, empty, vile, worthless, unworthy, you are welcome to the rich provision of sovereign grace and dying love. The simple belief of this, will perfect your heart in love; and perfected in love, every bondage fear will vanish away. Oh, seek to be perfected in Christ's love. It is a fathomless ocean; its breadth no mind can scan its height no thought can scale.
---Octavious Winslow (August 1st 1808 –March 5th 1878)
You may contact Pastor Walker at any of the following:
mike@millsitebaptistchurch.com
Mike Walker
773 Lone Oak Road
Cottageville, WV 25239
(304) 372-1407 home
(336) 984-7501 cell