As we saw again yesterday from John 20, Jesus Christ loves His own with a perfect, persevering, and holy love. May the words of the following hymn encourage you to dwell upon and trust in the immeasurable love of Christ all the more! (You can listen to a more recent version of this hymn here.)
The Love of Christ Is Rich and Free
Words: William Gadsby.
1. The love of Christ is rich and free;
Fixed on His own eternally;
Nor earth, nor hell, can it remove;
Long as He lives, His own He’ll love.
2. His loving heart engaged to be
Their everlasting Surety;
’Twas love that took their cause in hand,
And love maintains it to the end.
Chorus :
Love cannot from its post withdraw;
Nor death, nor hell, nor sin, nor law,
Can turn the Surety’s heart away;
He’ll love His own to endless day.
3. Love has redeemed His sheep with blood;
And love will bring them safe to God;
Love calls them all from death to life;
And love will finish all their strife.
4. He loves through every changing scene,
Nor aught from Him can Zion wean;
Not all the wanderings of her heart
Can make His love for her depart.
(Repeat chorus)
5. At death, beyond the grave, He’ll love;
In endless bliss, His own shall prove
The blazing glory of that love
Which never could from them remove.
As we’ve been learning from John 20:19-23, the Lord Jesus wills for every believer to be wholeheartedly sharing in the mission of His church. Practically, this means mutually submitting to, and participating in the life of a local church.
Here are just a few suggestions for how members of RCG can keep pursuing faithfulness to the Lord and one another:
1. Regularly review and pray through the “Membership Commitment” you affirmed when you became a member.
2. Pray regularly for other members at RCG, in light of examples like Eph. 1:15-20, 3:14-21, etc. The “Membership Directory” can be a great resource in doing this.
3. Joyfully participate in our main corporate gatherings on the Lord’s Day, including Equipping Hour, Corporate Worship, and our Evening Gathering.
4. Prayerfully and actively look for specific ways to minister to others in the body. Notes of encouragement, meeting physical needs, helping a younger Christian grow, taking initiative to meet new people – these are just some of the ways you can minister.
Not only is belonging to a local church a beneficial blessing for every believer, it is God’s will for all of us, so that He would be all the more glorified through us.
What a joy to share life in Him with you at RCG!
As we’ve been seeing over the last couple weeks from John 20:19-23, the Lord’s purpose for the mission of His church is crystal clear. In the power of His Holy Spirit, the church has the privilege and responsibility of proclaiming and living the Gospel of God’s peace in Jesus Christ, for the glory of the Father. This is the church’s singular calling, with life-altering implications for every believer.
Andreas J. Kostenberger, in his excellent book The Mission of Jesus and the Disciples, expands on the significance of this clear mission with these words:
“As Jesus was completely devoted to do the will of the one who sent him (e.g. John 4:34), the disciples too, are to subordinate themselves in the accomplishment of their mission to the will of their sender, Jesus. Jesus’ call of people to follow him constitutes their decisive encounter with the will of God (my emphasis.) From this call onward, the personal life of the messenger is determined exclusively by this charge. The disciple is to be completely subordinated to the will of his Lord until death.” (p. 195)
May God give us grace to completely subordinate ourselves all the more to His good, acceptable, and perfect will – until death!
In 1 Thessalonians 4:1, Paul exhorts the Thessalonian believers to “…excel still more” in living to please God. All believers should continually be learning, growing and maturing in Christ-likeness. This week, please be praying for a few folks from RCG who will be involved in some unique and focused growth opportunities.
First, on Tuesday Tim Ingrum and Theo Friesen will be starting their Fall Quarter of classes at the Cornerstone Seminary.
Second, this coming weekend Smokey Nevins, Matt Wolf and Anne James will be attending the first of three intensive weekend sessions for Biblical Counseling Training being hosted at Northcreek Church in Walnut Creek.
Finally, also this coming weekend, Chuck Meadows, Theo Friesen and I will be participating in the 9Marks Weekender, which takes place at Capitol Hill Baptist Church in Washington, D.C.
Please be praying that for each of us within these opportunities, we would receive grace and strength from the Lord to learn and apply His truth all the more faithfully and skillfully. May all that we share in cause us to “excel still more,” and serve to “…see God glorified as His grace and truth in Jesus Christ abounds in and overflows to more and more people.”
And as you’re praying for us, pray also about specific ways the Lord would have you to “excel still more!“
Blessings to you this Labor Day! Let me pass along a couple of resources that may be of interest to you.
First, a few months ago Sovereign Grace Music released a new album entitled Risen. As you might guess, all of the songs focus on the resurrection and exaltation of Jesus Christ. With where the Lord has had us in recent weeks in John 20 during corporate worship, this album is a rich and excellent “musical meditation” on the glories of our risen Lord and Savior. Who names – maybe we’ll soon be singing some of these songs at RCG!
Second, in this past Lord’s Day sermon, I mentioned the Kovac Planetarium in Northern Wisconsin. I visited this intriguing place last week while visiting my Dad for a few days (he lives about 30 minutes from the planetarium.) Quite a showcase of “The heavens telling the glory of God…” – Ps. 19:1. CBS News did a brief story on Frank Kovac and his work, which you can see here. So if you’re ever in Northern Wisconsin…I’m just saying!
What grace the Lord gives to His people as we sing to one another from hearts filled with thankfulness! The great exhortation of Colossians 3:16 continues to stir my heart and mind:
Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you, with all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with thankfulness in your hearts to God.
One song, among many, that has recently been gripping me is entitled To the Cross I Cling. You can find the song and listen to a short portion of it on the album God of Victory. The song is based on a prayer from The Valley of Vision called The Broken Heart, and the key line proclaims:
“All things in me call for my rejection, all things in You plead my acceptance.”
Beloved, this is the hope and wonder of the Gospel in 15 short words!! May your soul be strengthened by faith in the glories of Christ and the power of the cross!
Sing on!
Pastor Greg
Beloved, in connection with the “richly indwelling Word of Christ” we’ve been considering from Colossians 3:16, let me encourage you to prayerfully meditate on and live in this great passage from 1 Peter 1:22 – 2:3
22 Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart, 23 since you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God; 24 for “All flesh is like grass and all its glory like the flower of grass. The grass withers, and the flower falls, 25 but the word of the Lord remains forever.” And this word is the good news that was preached to you. 2:1 So put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander. 2 Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation— 3 if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good.
Longing for and tasting the goodness of the Lord with you!
Pastor Greg
As we saw yesterday in corporate worship, there is a blessed mandate for believers to “Let the word of Christ (about Christ – the Gospel!) richly dwell within you…” (Colossians 3:16). How do we grow in having our lives, individually and corporately, more and more consumed and saturated with the glorious wonder of the Gospel of Jesus Christ?
One essential, practical point of application is to cherish and actively participate in the rich blessings of corporate worship and fellowship on the Lord’s Day. While we are to trust, worship, and obey God every moment of every day, He has given us one day in seven to be uniquely set apart for the refreshment, strengthening, and reviving of our souls through His Word. Through hearing His Word read and preached, singing, praying, sharing in the ordinances, and fellowshipping with one another, the Lord powerfully works to multiply the hope, power, and riches of the Gospel in and through our lives.
As someone else has rightly said, the Lord’s Day is indeed the best day of the week. Moreover, wherever God’s people gather on that day as a local church, in the joy of the Gospel, is indeed the happiest place on earth.
I can’t wait to be with you all again this coming Lord’s Day!
Pastor Greg
As we saw yesterday in corporate worship, there is a blessed mandate for believers to “Let the word of Christ (about Christ – the Gospel!) richly dwell within you…” (Colossians 3:16). How do we grow in having our lives, individually and corporately, more and more consumed and saturated with the glorious wonder of the Gospel of Jesus Christ?
One essential, practical point of application is to cherish and actively participate in the rich blessings of corporate worship and fellowship on the Lord’s Day. While we are to trust, worship, and obey God every moment of every day, He has given us one day in seven to be uniquely set apart for the refreshment, strengthening, and reviving of our souls through His Word. Through hearing His Word read and preached, singing, praying, sharing in the ordinances, and fellowshipping with one another, the Lord powerfully works to multiply the hope, power, and riches of the Gospel in and through our lives.
As someone else has rightly said, the Lord’s Day is indeed the best day of the week. Moreover, wherever God’s people gather on that day as a local church, in the joy of the Gospel, is indeed the happiest place on earth.
I can’t wait to be with you all again this coming Lord’s Day!
Pastor Greg
With our preaching series on “Biblical Worship” drawing to a close, we thought it would be timely to have a “Question & Answer” time. We’re planning on doing this during our Evening Gathering this coming Lord’s Day, June 12. If you have particular questions regarding Biblical Worship, please either email them to me ahead of time (greg@rivercitygrace.org), or just bring questions when you come.
Beloved, we are the blood-bought people of God, and have been called by Him to proclaim His excellencies (1 Peter 2:9,10.) It’s a great privilege, blessing, and responsibility for us to gather weekly as His people in corporate worship. As we grow in seeking Him together through His Word, beholding His greatness and glory in Jesus Christ, may He continually transform us together into His likeness (2 Corinthisan 3:18.)
All to the praise of His glorious grace in Christ!
Pastor Greg