Being Transformed

MORNING WORSHIP

Prelude

Psalms, Hymns and Spiritual Songs

• No. 30 Our God, Our Help in Ages Past
• No. 486 God, Be Merciful to Me

Offertory

Hymn of Commitment

• No. 494 Forgive Our Sins (TUNE: MAJESTIC SWEETNESS SITS ENTHRONED)

Doxology

Postlude Ode to Joy

(Guest musicians: violin, viola, cello, oboe/English horn)

VESPER WORSHIP

Psalms, Hymns and Spiritual Songs

• No. 16 Come, Let Us Sing Unto the Lord
• No. 115 All Creatures of Our God and King

Hymn of Commitment

• When in Our Music God is Glorified - (Lyrics)
  

Doxology

Postlude Diadem

(The pre-service music will be offered with guest musicians, piano and vocal)

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Please refer to our website for the Sermon texts, Synopsis, and Order of Worship

“Christ is all, and in all” (Colossians 3:11).
Audio Sermon: Colossians 3:8-11

Jesus is everything - not just for Christians, but for the whole world:

• “All things have been created by Him and for Him” (Col. 1:16).

• “In Him all things hold together” (Col. 1:17).

• “He Himself gives to all life and breath” (Acts 17:25).

• “In Him we live and move and have our being” (Acts 17:28).

You cannot grasp with fullness Jesus’ allness unless you study those whose likenesses to Him allow inquirers to enter the genus of Christology. Abel manifested Jesus’ righteousness, Enoch His perseverance, Abraham His trust, Moses His humility, Daniel His courage and Jeremiah His compassion for His people. You would be well-served to deliberate upon Jesus’ throne-names of Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace, Chief Shepherd, King of kings and Lord of lords (Isa. 9:6; I Pe. 5:4; Rev. 19:16, respectively).

Be ever mindful that though you have been made in God’s image, Jesus was and is God Himself (Jn. 10:30; 14:9). He is the Lord of the Old Testament thereby uniting the two Testaments (Mal. 3:1; Acts 2:36; I Cor. 12:3; Phil. 2:11). Jesus is so much better than His followers because He perfectly couples the function of divine warrior and healer (Ex. 15:3, 26). The Lord Christ is the prophet of a new day, the high priest with the only offering acceptable to God and the king whose reign shall know no end.

Consider all of the kings, princes, presidents, prime ministers, governors, legislative bodies, courts, military personnel and officials who have held any position of authority in the history of the world. If you accumulate all of those holding these offices and in these positions preceding and following the tenure of Christ upon this land, you will discover that the lastingness of their influence is insignificant when compared to His.

Give deliberation to Jesus’ learned eloquence, boldness, unquestioned authority, inimitable verifiable miracles and the strength wherein He addressed the lives and souls of men. Who else could unite Jews and Gentiles? (Eph. 2:11-22). The God-man, your gladiatorial champion, wore His power lightly and yet diseases, winds, waves, devils and death obeyed His every desire. He could call a rich Zaccheus from the boughs of a sycamore tree and the sons of Zebedee from their fishing. A tax-gathering Matthew could not resist forsaking all he had to follow the One who is all in all.

Perhaps the words of those who have gone before will afford clarity concerning Jesus’ allness:

• “Christ’s performances outstrip His promises.” Nehemiah Rogers

• “The Physician did die that the patient might live. The resurrection of Christ is the Amen of all His promises.” John Boys

• “Christ did not die to purchase this world for us.” Thomas Adams

• “He hath got but a little of Christ that fears to get too much.” Thomas Taylor

• “A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic - on a level with the man who says he is a poached egg - or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse. You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.” C. S. Lewis

Jesus is in every circumstance, contact and movement. We would be remiss if we failed to note one other voice giving tongue to Christ being “in all.” Tertullian (c. 155-220) said, “See how these Christians love one another!”

GLORIA IN EXCELSIS GLORIA

“Therefore consider the members of your earthly body as dead to immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed, which amounts to idolatry”
(Colossians 3:5).
Audio Sermon: Colossians 3:5-7

The worldly gods of the Hebrews included Ashtoreth, Asherah, Asherim, Baal, Chemosh, Milcom and Molech. They were visible, popular with those around them and serving them brought the Hebrews into fellowship with those God commanded them to avoid.

Churchmen constantly sacrifice the greater for the lesser - the spiritual for the material. They sacrifice all to avoid the disfavor of those around them and to secure the favor of a society having little regard for them and their God. He conforms his life to societal prejudices, weaknesses and vices. He glosses over the truth to avoid any point of offence and does not hesitate to barter his professed relationship with Christ for a few moments of popularity.

When Christians pursue their worldly idols with more vigor than they do their God, they may discover that they have been given over by God to their worldly pursuits. Scores of church-goers honor the Lord and yet serve the world. You can know if you are serving your idols rather than the God of Scripture by examining the evidences you give to the world of your love for Christ. Perhaps these diagnostic questions will assist:

• What offends you most: Christ’s name not being lifted up or people not recognizing your name?

• What concerns you most: Perishing souls or your financial portfolio?

• What is your greatest joy: Your children making “A”s, you receiving a promotion at work or a person you barely know mortifying one sin?

Be mindful; God is as pleased with worldly-minded Christians as He is with devils in heaven. While man spares no cost in serving his earthly gods, God spares no cost in tearing those He loves from their earthly gods.

God’s gospel is designed for idolaters, servants of the world and earthly-minded churchmen. In this eternal curriculum known as the Bible, a person is called to attend to the ways of God. Idols of every stripe are identified, punishments are explained and the benefits of fleeing from idol worship are exampled.

You cannot afford to be given over to worldly idols. Though there may come a time when God will draw you to Himself, you cannot imagine the pain and scarring that accompany your service to the idols of this present darkness. The ripples flowing from pursuing worldliness at the expense of growing in holiness devastate families, churches, communities and nations. When you recite the Lord’s Prayer, you petition God to not lead you into temptation, but to deliver you from evil because you have an awareness of your susceptibility to idol worship and the effect of leaving the God you love (Mt. 6:13).

“Go, serve everyone his idols; but later, you will surely listen to Me, and My holy name you will profane no longer with your gifts and with your idols.” Just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer, God gave them over to a depraved mind, to do those things which are not proper” (Eze. 20:39; Ro. 1:28, respectively).

SOLI DEO GLORIA!

MORNING WORSHIP

Prelude Lento

Psalms, Hymns and Spiritual Songs

• No. 100 Holy, Holy, Holy!
• No. 66 God is Known Among His People (TUNE: Regent Square)

Offertory

Hymn of Commitment

• No. 521 My Hope is Built on Nothing Less (The Solid Rock)

Doxology

Postlude Glorious Things of Thee are Spoken

VESPER WORSHIP

Psalms, Hymns and Spiritual Songs

• No. 122 God, All Nature Sings Thy Glory
• No. 163 At the Name of Jesus (TUNE: WYE Valley Without Refrain)
  

Hymn of Commitment

• No. 32 Great is Thy Faithfulness

Doxology

Postlude Lobe Den Herren

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Please refer to our website for the Sermon texts, Synopsis, and Order of Worshi

“Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth” (Colossians 3:2).
Audio Sermon: Colossians 3:1-4

The Christian life is a risen life affording the risen ones a mind set on eternal matters, for they are graced with eyes seeing what earthly eyes cannot see, ears hearing what earthly ears cannot hear and hearts loving what earthly hearts cannot love. Christians are being bedewed by the blood of Christ, educated by the Spirit of Christ and seated with Him in the heavenly places by the love of Christ. Biblical Christians have a mental quiver being filled with uncommon treasures.
You are commanded to take your mind off earthly matters. Your mind should be ever meditating upon Jesus’ person, His work, His coming and His reign of glory. He is going to establish a new heaven for His church triumphant. Why would you want to hold fast to the Samaritan waterpots of this world? (Jn. 4:28).

God has gifted you with the firewall of the new birth separating you from all that is passing away. Estrange yourself from the Towers of Babel, the eastern Asherah and the graven images of the west. Trust heaven’s God rather than the earthly Goliaths who conceal their clay feet and weak limbs.

If heavenly thoughts are strange to you, you are not heavenly. If you do not perceive yourself betrothed to Christ, then you are not. If you do not know that you have received the grace of eternal life, you have not.

Christians are losing their eye for the familiarities of this world (Gal. 6:14). They are being weaned from the perversion of a life lacking everlasting harmony (Ro. 6:2). They are increasingly disinterested in conventional living that conforms to earthly traditions (Heb. 12:1).

Everything alien to Jesus is alien to His saints. The infrastructure of Christian thought is being hidden in Jesus’ wounds, being sanctified by Jesus’ law, being escorted into Jesus’ heaven, being safe in Jesus’ likeness and being content with Jesus’ God. Saints place their heads upon the heaving bosom of Christ because they know its dearness.

Jesus alone affords you an inexhaustible life. Nonetheless, this boundless life requires a new nature marked by a fresh illimitable purpose for your life. Jesus actually lives in you by the person of the Holy Spirit. Because He lives in you, though He is invisible to the world, you make public His magnificence so that men of every tongue and tribe become interested in the imminence of His return.

Are you expecting Jesus to perform miracles in your life? Are you numbered amongst those setting their minds on things above? Does Jesus’ final advent belong to you so that you know you will shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of your heavenly Father? (Mt. 13:43).

GLORIA IN EXCELSIS GLORIA!

“If you have died with Christ to the elementary principles of the world, why, as if you were living in the world, do you submit yourself to decrees” (Colossians 2:20).
Audio Sermon: Colossians 2:16-23

This verse spawns three personal probing inquiries:

• Have I died with Christ?

• Have I identified the elementary principles of the world disfiguring my relationship with God?

• Have I described with precision the worldly decrees leading to my esteem for another god or other gods?

You are either alive to yourself or alive to Christ. If you are alive to Christ, then “you have died with Christ.” If you are alive to yourself, then your life is fleshly just like most of the folks with whom you work and play (Gal. 5:17, 25). The person who has died with Christ battles fleshly impulses, intemperance in all matters and selfishness. He identifies his primary perils as his earthly reliances, so he rejects half truths and worldly wisdom (Js. 3:17).

The elementary principles of the world coerce you to prop up your perception of yourself via the regard others have for you rather than according to Jesus’ standard. Consequently, throughout your life you are wearied by an unending performance as a stage actor in order to accrue their liking. A performance-based life is a penitentiary.

The worldly decrees lending to your appreciation for another god or other gods most likely have their genesis in your fear of the opinions your family and friends may form of you if you live a Christlike life. Have you made an idol of the perception you want others to have of you? When God establishes His covenant of grace in one’s heart, He severs that person’s bondage to this earthly life so that this life becomes merely a means to God’s eternal end. You begin to live as though your primary citizenship is in heaven so you cease practicing your atheistic and apostate religion (Phil. 3:20f.).

Christianity is not tame or docile - it is revolutionary. Biblical Christianity has such a penetrating influence upon its devotees that it requires dying with Christ to yourself, dying to worldly standards and dying to the opinions of those having no relationship with Jesus. If you have died with Christ, then you are no longer cheating His eyes of witnessing His likeness expressed through you to those having little interest in Him.

Perhaps you might be served heaven’s blessings by placing your mind and heart before several searching interrogatories:

• Have I exchanged my life for Jesus’ life?

• Have I exchanged my today for His eternity?

• Have I exchanged my casual address to Christianity for Jesus’ intentional purposed exacting Christianity?

• Am I comfortable with a life premised upon minimal biblical standards?

• Am I urgent about eternal matters?

Jesus says, “In vain do they worship Me, teaching as doctrines the precepts of men” (Mk. 7:7).

SOLI DEO GLORIA!

MORNING WORSHIP

Prelude Like a River Glorious

Psalms, Hymns and Spiritual Songs

• No. 38 Immortal, Invisible, God Only WIse
• No. 164 O for a Thousand Tongues to Sing

Offertory

Hymn of Commitment

• No. 585 Take My Life, and Let It Be

Doxology

Postlude Coronation (Tune: Coronation)

VESPER WORSHIP

Psalms, Hymns and Spiritual Songs

• No. 44 How Great Thou Art
• No. 457 Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing

Hymn of Commitment

• No. 555 Lord, I Was Blind: I Could Not See (Tune: GERMANY LM)

Doxology

Postlude O God Beyond All Praising

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Please refer to our website for the Sermon texts, Synopsis, and Order of Worship

“…having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us and which was hostile to us; and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross” (Colossians 2:14).
Audio Sermon: Colossians 2:13-15 (Part II)

Most religious folk find the foundation for their religion in their customs and cultures. They assume the religion of their family or ethnic group. They are not excited about their religion because it impacts their lives very little. They have taken the religion of their parents as their own because, “if it was good enough for Dad and Mom, it’s good enough for me.”

Paul directs your attention to the cross of Christ. The cross is the footing wherein the Christian faith is grounded. Many are repulsed by your faith due to Jesus’ cross. However, their spurn is no surprise to God:

“For indeed Jews ask for signs, and Greeks search for wisdom; but we preach Christ crucified, to Jews a stumbling block, and to Gentiles foolishness, but to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men. For consider your calling, brethren, that there were not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble; but God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong, and the base things of the world and the despised, God has chosen, the things that are not, that He might nullify the things that are, that no man should boast before God” (I Cor. 1: 22-29).

The cross was important to Paul. He told the Church that the cross was the price Jesus had to pay in order to purchase them out of their sin (Gal. 3:13). There was not one churchman (or American) who could pay the ransom price. Jesus alone possessed the currency God would accept as payment for a person’s sin (Gal. 3:16; I Pe. 1:18f.).

Your society has devised a Christianity wherein the cross is no longer necessary. Christ’s cross is no longer required because society refuses to grasp the horror of sin. Social engineers have redefined sin so that it no longer exists. Oh, they will admit that men make mistakes and may be involved in certain peccadilloes, but man at his core is good and so he does not really sin. Logically, if you do not sin, you do not need a cross.

God’s opinion of your “mistakes/peccadilloes” is at odds with your too gracious personal notions. God says, “If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves, and the truth is not in us…. If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us” (I Jn. 1:8, 10).

You are a sinner. You sin every day of your life. You need the cleansing blood of Jesus that He shed on His cross. The Christ of God is the only Savior. Is Jesus’ cross your cross - is Jesus your Savior?

GLORIA IN EXCELSIS GLORIA

“When you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our transgressions…” (Colossians 2:13).
Audio Sermon: Colossians 2:13-15 (Part I)

The pride of humanity refuses to accept the biblical truth that man is born spiritually dead. Though many theologians know that God describes the sin of Adam and Eve in Genesis 2 as death, the hubris of their manliness will not allow them to place God’s inerrant word above their too kind opinions of themselves.

There are three primary views of man’s condition. The first is the “pelagian” perspective that man is born good. Left to his own devices, he will do well and go to heaven. The second viewpoint is that of the “antinomian” who will agree that man is sick, but when some form of spiritual buoy is cast in his direction, this sick man has enough power within his own nature to reach out, secure the buoy and accept God’s gift of towing him into His holy heaven. The third and most scriptural point of view is the spiritual of man in his trespasses and sins, by nature a child of wrath, and God must not only supply grace, He must apply the grace to the dead man’s account because he has not even enough strength or desire to reach out and take the gift God provides.

Jesus says the unbeliever is dead (Jn. 5:24; I Jn. 3:14). Non-Christian humanity is a physically living yet spiritually dead cemetery. Each and every unbeliever in Christ Jesus is spiritually illegitimate because his father is the devil (Jn. 8:44).

The spoiled fruits of being dead to Christ are trespasses and sins. Augustine opined that the unbeliever is non posse non peccare, not able not to sin. The reality that the unsaved man has no interest in having any commerce with holiness and the God of holiness is a confirmation of man’s total depravity.

Spiritual death is characterized by the absence of hearing the pulse of the Lord and seeing the hand of the Lord in the words of the Bible. The unbeliever suicidally enjoys the narcotic of indulgence that makes him a sluggard to the honey of the Holy Spirit. He has no taste for the sweetness of Christ’s love. Unbelievers refuse to confess the painful death sin assures, instead holding close to their bosoms the very serpent who is poisoning their lives.

The non-Christian wants to go to heaven, but he expects his journey to cost him very little. True saving grace sets men to pursue perfection (Phil. 3:13; Prov. 4:18). Societal puppets do not yearn for perfection. A society strangling on its own vomit makes feeble attempts to pursue the pursuits of God.

The world is an enemy to godliness constantly flattering you by offering you the pacifier of money and the opiate of pleasure. It is no friend to grace because it chokes out your love for heavenly matters. It will give you bleary-eyed Leah rather than lovely Rachel. It increases desires rather than satisfying them, forever cloaking its poison within the costume of sugar.

This writing can only draw the spiritual bow; whereas, God must direct His arrow between the joints of the harness of your fallenness. God peoples His church with dry bones. Have you been dry but are now being refreshed with the dew of the Holy Spirit?

SOLI DEO GLORIA!

“For in Him all the fullness of Deity dwells in bodily form” (Colossians 2:9).
Audio Sermon: Colossians 2:9-12

The essence of the Trinity resides in each of the persons of the Trinity. The fullness of all three persons of the Trinity is found in Jesus. He interprets God to man. In Jesus, you encounter God’s splendor and essence - you witness God’s character - you behold the power of God’s Spirit - you meet the holiness of God’s Spirit - you discover God’s exaltation.

Jesus actually broadcasted God’s brightness. God’s shekinah glory, His Divine Presence, shot forth from Christ. Jesus told Philip, “He who has seen Me has seen the Father” (Jn. 14:9). You can only receive “the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ” (II Cor. 4:6).

How can even the God-man (the Theanthropos) exactly represent God? Though They are two persons, They are the same essence. Jesus says, “He who beholds Me beholds the One who sent Me” (Jn. 12:45).

Jesus superintends and bears history’s past as well as its future by His word because His word serves as the host for His power. Jesus’ words were given Him by the Father and the words Jesus spoke are what will judge His rejecters at the last day (Jn. 12:49, 48). Jesus is your interpreter because He is truth. Absolute truth rarely flatters its beholder, for it is unashamed of both testing and light. Jesus is your terminus ad quem, your final goal.

Only God can forgive sin, so how can a man, albeit Jesus, cleanse another man of his sins? Jesus is the perfect high priest who, serving as your forerunner, entered within the veil. In Him alone can your sins, though scarlet and red as crimson, be made white as snow.

Lady Macbeth (c. 1606), who goaded her husband to kill the king so that he might gain the crown, cried out saying, “What! Will these hands ne’er be clean?” Jesus responds that He cleans the hands and purifies the hearts of God’s elect so that you may ascend onto the hill of the Lord and stand in His holy place.

Can any man be granted the right to sit in the presence of “the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God?” (I Ti. 1:17). David says, “The Lord says to my Lord: ‘Sit at My right hand, until I make Thine enemies a footstool for Thy feet’” (Ps. 110:1). Jesus is gifted with the post of honor, holiness, intercession and power - He is King Jesus because He is God!

“No man has seen God at any time; the only begotten God, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has explained Him. He is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature, and upholds all things by the word of His power. When He had made purification of sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high” (Jn. 1:18; Heb. 1:3, respectively).

GLORIA IN EXCELSIS GLORIA

“See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception, according to the tradition of men, according to the elementary principles of the world, rather than according to Christ” (Colossians 2: .
Audio Sermon: Colossians 2:8 (Part II)

In the cultures of the western world, the less Christianity one practices, the more sensible and well bred he is considered. The practical expression of Christianity has become the dividing line between the intellectual and the not-so-bright. Western civilization is flirting with so great a captivity through traditions and elementary principles that our flirtations are escorting us into a spiritual “Dark Age” when everyone does what is right in his own eyes (Judg. 21:25).

Unless Carolina Christians recapture the voice they once exercised, both Christian and non-Christian will become oppressed by the captivity of enslavement to an existence your forefathers not only would have never conceived, but they paid with their own blood to prevent. The children of the Carolinas will become increasingly the property of the state rather than the parents; educating the public on such unpopular topics as homosexuality and adultery will become hate crimes; and the pagan altar of secularism/humanism will be covered in the blood of silent parents and grandparents who were more fearful of men, of economic reprisals, and of social ostracism than they were of the living God (Ro. 3:18).

Perhaps Paul places his saintly finger upon the God-breathed intent when he writes, “Run in such a way that you may win. Everyone who competes in the games exercises self-control in all things. I buffet my body and make it my slave” (I Cor. 9:24f.). Your Lord’s Christ requires running to win, competing under the rigors of self-control and making every divisive or diverting possibility a slave to indefatigable labors. Unflagging, unstinting, vigorous industry must be employed.

God is calling you off of your worldly pursuits to a quest larger than yourself and more lasting than your life in this world. You have been placed in the tributary of spiritual commerce so that remaining generations shall profit from your involvement in the agenda of the Ancient of Days. Contending earnestly for Christianity does not assure success from the world’s perspective, but it does insure the contender’s comeliness in the eyes of God. Oftentimes, the early contenders are the forerunners of the King of glory entering the fray on behalf of His beloved.

God will place the burden upon your heart that He has settled upon no other. He will give you a vision for what shall only be accomplished through the labors of one man committed to obeying the Lord even when he fails to understand exactly why or how. God will increase your mental and emotional resolve to invest yourself beyond any boundaries you ever conceived. Nonetheless, you cannot know the exhilaration of being released from the traditions of men and enabled to contend earnestly in heaven’s everlasting cause until you wade the river of determined untiring resolve.

You want the adventure of pursuing God. You want the excitement of being involved in transforming an entire society. You want the benefits for yourself and coming generations. This day martyr every perception, tendency, persuasion, thought, comfort, ambition and means presently standing between the labor you have chosen for yourself and the labor God has chosen for your life’s work.

SOLI DEO GLORIA!

“See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception, according to the tradition of men, according to the elementary principles of the world, rather than according to Christ” (Colossians 2: .
Audio Sermon: Colossians 2:8 (Part I)

As is true with any civilization, when issues continue to remain unaddressed by those with responsibility for the nurture of the people, the degeneration excels as the implosion bleeds over into all arenas of human involvement. The societal boundaries of western civilization have become blurred, and when boundaries become blurred your senses lose their defenses. You cease being able to distinguish between vice and virtue, right and wrong. Abraham Kuyper, the former Prime Minister of the Netherlands, said:

“If your boundary has become uncertain, vague, even invisible, the fear of drawing your sword soon keeps your hand from the hilt and no one fears any blame for taking one step backward after another. This process continues until finally the sacred domain is totally lost and no courage remains for a struggle that is now useless. It is precisely that uncertainty which cuts the lines of our power, that lack of firmness which makes us hesitant, that hesitancy which causes us to hang back and procrastinate, and with that procrastination the fire of our enthusiasm dies out before we realize it… the line of defense was shrunk again and again.

“As soon as principles gain ground that are contrary to your deepest convictions, then resistance is your duty and acquiescence a sin. Then, at the price of the finest peace, you must attack those principles, stigmatizing them before the eyes of friend and foe alike with all the ardor of your faith.”

No society wants to be awakened from its death-assuring sleep. Those attempting to reestablish moral boundaries should expect opposition. They must be willing to go into harm’s way by weighing anchor and refusing to pursue diversions. God says, “They hate him who reproves in the gate, and they abhor him who speaks with integrity. Hate evil, love good, and establish justice in the gate!” (Am. 5:10, 15).

An uncivil war is being waged for the heart of your Carolina commonwealth. Tragically, this moral Armageddon is occurring largely unnoticed by folks professing Christianity though who are for the most part disengaged. Perhaps their lives are becoming so handcuffed by their confederacy with the world that their public virtue has become private. Perhaps they are warehousing their Christ rather than proclaiming Him (I Pe. 2:9). Perhaps they are content with an ever-diminishing influence in their world, but God is not.

What would it be like to live in a world wherein the world determines the appropriate boundaries rather than God? What would it be like to live in a world that dismantles its virtuous cornerstones one at a time so that the dismantling is less noticeable, though no less destructive? What would it be like to live in a world wherein the worship of man has supplanted the worship of God, the focus of man has shifted from heaven to earth and human opinion has usurped divine revelation? (Jer. 2:11). What would it be like to live in a world where the moral man seeks quiet retreats rather than the endeavor of the public domain?

A watershed occurs in your own life when you come to terms with the reality that you yourself have been taken captive. God says, “Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord, the people whom He has chosen for His own inheritance. Righteousness exalts a nation” (Ps. 33:12; Prov. 14:34, respectively).

GLORIA IN EXCELSIS GLORIA

“As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him” (Colossians 2:6).
Audio Sermon: Colossians 2:5-7

Churchmen think they can walk the fence between worldliness and holiness, but they forget that the devil is the builder of that imaginary deceitful fence, not God. It is constructed of temptations and sins coupled with the defense of mediocre Christianity. Two of the best known walkers upon this fabled fence were Judas and Demas.

The canons of your fallen society form the consensus of how people do walk rather than how they should walk. Cultural/nominal/social Christians rarely vigorously oppose the teachings of Scripture until people begin daily practicing the Scriptures. Biblical Christianity is offensive because its genesis is from another culture - heaven! Nonetheless, you cannot have Christ without His societal culture.

Enoch’s walk was a style of life practicing the presence of God (Gen. 5:24). This lifestyle requires your trust that God is the dwelling place of all generations from the eternal past until the eternity that shall never end (Ps. 90:1f.). You should be living as though the Council of the Trinity is seated, you are at the bar of justice before them and the books of your life and works are opened ( Dan. 7:10; Rev. 20:12-15).

God never walks out of bounds. He never walks out of the way of holiness. Those walking contrary to Him should expect Him to walk contrary to them.

Do you want to companion with the King? God says, “Can two walk together, except they be agreed?” (Am. 3:3, KJV). All those communing with God listen for the soft voice of the Holy Spirit, whispering, “This is the way, walk in it” (Isa. 30:21). The manner of the Lord is a way quite separate from worldly principles, practices, professions and pursuits, for He says, “Though all the peoples walk each in the name of his god, as for us, we will walk in the name of the Lord our God forever and ever” (Mic. 4:5).

How does God define this walk?
“Stand by the ways and see and ask for the ancient paths, where the good way is, and walk in it; and you shall find rest for your souls” (Jer. 6:16).
“For we walk by faith, not by sight” (II Cor. 5:7).
“Walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh. If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit” (Gal. 5:16, 25).
“Walk no longer just as the Gentiles also walk, in the futility of the mind… you lay aside the old self… and put on the new self, which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth” (Eph. 4:17, 22, 24).

But does a man have the vigor in himself to engage in this walk? No!
“The Lord God is my strength, and He has made my feet like hinds’ feet, and makes me walk on my high places” (Hab. 3:19).
“The mind of man plans his way, but the Lord directs his steps” (Prov. 16:9).
“I do not possess silver and gold, but what I do have I give to you: In the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene - walk!” (Acts 3:6).
Thomas Boston wrote, “When God made man, his will, in respect of its intention, was directed towards God, as his chief end; in respect of its choice, it pointed towards that which God willed. When man unmade himself, his will was framed to the very reverse hereof: he made himself his chief end, and his own will his law. But when man is new made, in regeneration, grace rectifies this disorder in some measure, though not perfectly: because we are but renewed in part, while in this world.”

You must be of one mind with the Son of God rather than living as a mere son of Eve. God loved you before the foundation of the world and you are a son of eternity. You are an oak of righteousness amidst mere saplings. You are not pursuing the walk of the world because the love of the Father is in you ( Js. 4:4; I Jn. 2:15).

You are at peace with God, sharing in His purposes because you seek His glory. Your contentment comes from another world and your attitude in this life is a progressive maturation because you are hidden with Christ in God (Col. 3:3). Your new birth, eternal exchange, repentance and reconciliation cultivate your resemblance to Christ in living character and saintly cadence.

Pray that your societal non-conformity and consistent disassociation with all encumbrances will encourage others “to abstain from fleshly lusts which wage war against the soul” (I Pe. 2:11). Your free exercise of the Christian liberty of doing what you ought to do when you ought to do it is the hope for a culture holy to the Lord.

SOLI DEO GLORIA!

MORNING WORSHIP

Prelude Pavane

Psalms, Hymns and Spiritual Songs

• No.101 Come, Thou Almighty King
• No. 30 Our God, Our Help in Ages Past

Offertory

Hymn of Commitment

• No. 320 Rejoice, All Ye Believers

Doxology

Postlude La Rejouissance

VESPER WORSHIP

Psalms, Hymns and Spiritual Songs

• No. 571 Stand Up, Stand Up for Jesus
• No. 575 Soldiers of Christ, Arise

Hymn of Commitment

• No. 587 Who is on the Lord’s Side?
  

Doxology

Lead on, O King eternal;
We follow, not with fears;
For gladness breaks like morning
when e’er thy face appears;
Thy cross is lifted o’er us;
We journey in the light;
The crown awaits the conquest
Lead on, O God of might. Amen
Verse 3 from No. 580 “Lead On, O King Eternal” (Tune: Lancashire)

Postlude

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