THE PRECIOUS BLOOD

February 4, 2015 By Pastor David Stone

“Precious blood“.- 1 Peter 1:19

The blood of Jesus is the price of our redemption, the object of our faith, the ground of our peace, the subject of our meditation, and our constant plea at the throne of grace.

It satisfied Divine justice, and speaks peace to the humble sinner’s heart. It overcomes Satan, and cleanseth from all sin.
It purges the conscience from dead works, and leads us to joy in God. We build on it as our foundation, flee to it as our refuge, look to it as the cure for sin, and sing of it as the joy of our heart. It has made a perfect, a satisfactory, an infinite atonement; and no sinner can perish who relies upon it, washes in it, and pleads it before God. It is indeed precious blood! It is invaluable!

Whenever you feel guilt on your conscience, fears rising in your mind, or a gloom come over your spirit; look to, meditate upon, make use of, the precious blood of Jesus. It made peace, it gives peace, and it secures peace. It cleanses, heals, and sanctifies; and we could not live happy one day without it. The blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth us from all sin. To this alone we must look as the foundation of our hope, and ground of our peace.(James Smith)

Dear dying Lamb! Thy precious blood
Shall never lose its power,
Till all the ransom’d church of God
Be saved to sin no more.

A GALLERY OF GOSSIPS

December 11, 2013 By Pastor David Stone

After my article, “An Unruly Evil”, yesterday, I thought you might find this article posted by Tim Challies of interest: Note–this is the only article I have ever knowingly posted the uses anything other than the King James Version and I am doing so only for the sake of accurately quoting the gentlemen and to not misrepresent him. Quoting him does not mean that I agree with everything he says. This doesn’t change the main points and you can consult the KJV for yourself. So please don’t spread any gossip about me using anything other than the KJV. Anyone who knows me knows that will never happen.

Gossip is a serious problem. It is a problem in the home, in the workplace, in the local church and in broader evangelicalism. It is a problem in the blogosphere, in social media, and beyond. In his book Resisting Gossip, Matthew Mitchell defines gossip as “bearing bad news behind someone’s back out of a bad heart” —- Words matter, but they are simply the overflow of the heart. As always, the heart is the heart of the matter.

Here, drawn from Mitchell’s book, is a gallery of gossips, five different gossiping people you will meet in life.

Gossip #1: The Spy

The first kind of gossip, and I know you’ve run across this person before, is The Spy. Solomon describes him in Proverbs 11:13: “A gossip betrays a confidence, but a trustworthy man keeps a secret.” The Spy is an informer, a person who gathers secrets so he can use them to his personal advantage. This is the person who is always listening for rumors and who always seems to know everyone else’s business. His ear is always to the ground. The Spy’s main motivation is power. It may be the thrill of knowing something before everyone else, or it may be the power that comes when threatening others by revealing their secrets. He uses information to elevate himself and to destroy others.

Gossip #2: The Grumbler

The second gossip is The Grumbler and we find him in Proverbs 16:28: “A perverse man stirs up dissension, and a gossip separates close friends.” The Grumbler complains and criticizes. She criticizes other people and complains about them behind their backs. She spreads all their secrets, describes exactly how she feels about them, and then excuses it all by saying, “I just needed to vent for a while.” Because she is miserable, and because misery loves company, she drags other people into her grumbling. Her motive is often jealously or envy. She wants what another person has and grumbles because she does not have it herself.

Gossip #3: The Backstabber

We all know The Backstabber, don’t we? The Backstabber is a complainer, but he is more than that. He is also angry and malicious and is out destroy others. He may bring full-out lies in order to bring down another person, or he may engage in a smear campaign. He looks for something, anything, everything wrong with his enemies and makes sure everyone knows about those things; if he can’t find them, he makes them up. The Backstabber is often motivated by revenge for some deep offense, some opportunity lost, or some hardship gained. This offense or perceived offense has led to bitterness which has taken root and motivated this desire for revenge. Today, many of these people begin web sites and do their work as loudly and publicly as possible.

Gossip #4: The Chameleon

The Chameleon is the person who uses gossip to fit in with the crowd at work or school or church or even in the family. She is desperate to blend in and to be accepted. Since everyone else gossips, she gossips too, so that she can join in the conversation. Since respect comes through sharing juicy facts about others, she finds and then shares that kind of information. Her motivation is fear—the fear of man. She is afraid of what others will think of her, and especially afraid of being excluded from the crowd. Prov 29:25 describes her well: “Fear of man will prove to be a snare, but whoever trusts in the LORD is kept safe.”

Gossip #5: The Busybody

The final kind of gossip is The Busybody. The Busybody is the person who is idle, and his idleness leads to meddling and gossip. Proverbs 26:17 speaks to him: “Like one who seizes a dog by the ears is a passer-by who meddles in a quarrel not his own.” We meet The Busybody man in both of Paul’s letters to the Thessalonians and we meet The Busybody woman in his first letter to Timothy. The Busybody loves the titillation that comes through gossip and loves living vicariously through other people’s stories. The Busybody loves to be online where he can troll celebrity gossip sites in the name of amusement and Christian celebrity gossip sites in the name of discernment.

Most of us have met these people. Most of us have been these people. Each of us is in desperate need of God’s forgiveness and God’s sanctifying grace.

WALK CIRCUMSPECTLY

February 3, 2015 By Pastor David Stone

“Walk circumspectly”. – Ephesians 5:15
We’ve been placing a lot of emphasis on walking lately. Our mid-week study is from Proverbs, which has to do with walking wisely. Our Sunday evening study is from Eph. 4 and is entitled “Walking Worthy”. Although I didn’t plan it this way, this serves as a good reminder that to do the latter we must do the former. As Christians, we must take great care in the manner of our walk, due to the fact that we are representing Christ. I thought of this when I read the following article by James Smith who was the predecessor to Charles Spurgeon. Although this was written in 1840 it is just as true and helpful today as it was then.

“You are in an enemy’s land; surrounded by temptations; and have a heart that is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked. To honour Jesus in your spirit, communications, and every action, should be your constant aim.

You are to live unto the Lord, for Him who died for you and rose again. To this end, provision was laid up in the everlasting covenant, for this purpose the precious promises were made, and with this design the Holy Spirit is given; that you may serve Him in righteousness and holiness all the days of your life.

This world is not your home; Satan’s family are not to be your associates; riches, honours, or pleasure, are not to be your objects; you are to walk as in the midst of snares; watchful, prayerful, depending upon Jesus, and cultivating fellowship with Him.

O keep your eye on Jesus, as your example; walk by His word, as your rule; be not venturesome or presumptuous, but avoid the very appearance of evil. Never leave the Lord’s ways or ordinances, to join the world’s parties or to please a carnal fancy. Keep close to Jesus, and follow on to know the Lord. Act as a loving child going home to his father’s house.”

So let our lips and lives express
The holy Gospel we profess;
So let our works and virtues shine,
To prove the doctrine all Divine.

AN UNRULY EVIL

December 10, 2013 By Pastor David Stone

The very title of this article sounds awful– and it is. What in the world could this have reference to— murder? adultery? robbery? perversion? Nope, it’s the tongue! James 3:8 says,”–the tongue is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison”.

Have you ever noticed how many things can be used for good or bad? Water can keep you alive or take your life, depending on whether you drink it or drown in it. Fire can warm and comfort you or burn and consume you. The same sun that melts the wax hardens the clay. Even so, the tongue can heal or hurt, delight or destroy. When misused, it is described by James as, “an unruly evil”. It can do untold damage and even destroy.

The tongue can be misused in several ways– lying, cursing, slander’ etc., but perhaps the most common is gossip. Some mistakenly assume that as long as what they say is true that it’s okay to say it. They think if they are telling the truth it is just fine to tell what they know– even if it means spilling-the-beans on others. But gossip is soundly condemned in the Bible. It is hard to say just a little about this subject, because the Bible says so much about it. Some folks ought to spend an entire day studying what God’s Word says about sinful speech. They might come away shocked that they have been entertaining such an awful sin in their life– a sin,perhaps, far worse than the sin of the person they have been talking about.

Compounding this problem is the fact that many people have garbage can ears— they just sit there listening to things that shouldn’t be said. That makes them complicit in the sin. If you are guilty of this you need to remember that those who complain and cry on your shoulder gossiping to you will gossip about you. Do yourself a favor and let them know that you would rather not hear it. I know from observation and experience that when a person sins, sometimes more harm is done by those who gossip about it than by the one who actually committed it. Please don’t allow others to make you their partner in crime by participating in their sin of gossip.

Have you noticed that in a great many instances when people leave the church they feel they must justify their departure by finding fault. And even that would not be so bad (yeah, believe it or not, the church is better off without some folks) were it not for the fact that they end up causing others to leave. That of course is the mission of some, but others do not intentionally provoke others to leave. However, they do it anyway by their insistence on talking to others about “the problem”. They refuse to simply walk away quietly without stirring up trouble. In some cases they know if they simply leave without an explanation it will raise questions about them, so their pride prompts them to point out that it is the fault of someone else. Isn’t it strange that they don’t want to stay and help the church get better– to work through the “problem” rather than run from it. It just might be that they are looking for a way out and are using the failure of someone else to cover-up their own. If you can’t fix the problem why should you be hearing about it? Not only are we responsible for what we say, we are accountable for the things we willingly listen to. Be very careful about allowing others to criticize the Lord’s church in your presence. Think about it.

CLEAVE UNTO CHRIST

February 2, 2015 By Pastor David Stone

“Who, when he came , and had seen the grace of God, was glad , and exhorted them all, that with purpose of heart they would cleave unto the Lord“ – Acts 11:23

Every Believer is united to Christ, and is one with Him. Jesus is the vine, he is a branch; Jesus is the husband, he is the bride. Satan’s design is to lead him from the Lord; he knows well he can do little or nothing, while the Christian cleaves to Jesus.

O, then, cleave to Him by faith, in love, with perseverance!

Cleave to His truth, to His people, to His ordinances, to His word, and to His throne. Think of Jesus as the affectionate child thinks of his beloved father, as the tender bride thinks of her devoted bridegroom, as the way-worn traveller thinks of His cheerful home.

Let Jesus be uppermost in thy thoughts, let His love rule thy heart, and let nothing steal away thy affections from Him. Live upon His fulness, live according to His word, live in the element of His love; no living safely, no living happily, but as you cleave unto the Lord. Never let Satan find thee at a distance from Jesus, or he will assuredly be too much for thee. He is ever on the watch to find thee wandering, that he may worry, deceive, and distress thee. Therefore cleave unto the Lord, with full purpose of heart. Cleave to Him as the ivy to the oak, or the child to the mother’s breast.–James Smith, 1840

Saviour, let me cleave to Thee;
Love the bond of union be;
And, lest I should e’er depart,
Keep Thy dwelling in my heart.

THE PRECIOUS BLOOD

A GALLERY OF GOSSIPS

Gossip #1: The Spy

Gossip #2: The Grumbler

Gossip #3: The Backstabber

Gossip #4: The Chameleon

WALK CIRCUMSPECTLY

AN UNRULY EVIL

CLEAVE UNTO CHRIST

Welcome to Lakeway Baptist Church

Latest Posts

Upcoming Events

Breakfast Fellowship

Sunday School

Morning Worship Service

Choir Practice

Evening Worship Service

Master Clubs

Midweek Bible Study

Recent Announcements

Latest Sermons

Service Times

Sunday

Wednesday

Thursday