Rescue Baptist Church
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Preaching God's Sovereign, Electing Grace

   

 

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WELCOME TO RESCUE BAPTIST CHURCH 

August 26, 2012

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SCHEDULED MEETINGS

      Sunday Morning Bible Study      . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   10:00 AM

      Sunday Morning Worship           . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   11:00 AM

      Sunday Evening Worship            . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .     6:30 PM

      Friday Night Bible  Study           . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  .    7:30 PM

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OPENING HYMN                       

    “How Great Thou Art”                                                        Page 4

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SCRIPTURE READING 

     Psalm 119:33 - 48   

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OFFERTORY

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WORSHIP HYMN 

   “Under His Wings”                                                          Page 356 

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SPECIAL MUSIC 

   “It Took a Miracle”

     Oanh Dean, and John & Kathy Reeves

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Message Title 

   “Be Not Afraid”      

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CLOSING HYMN 

   “Rock of Ages”                                                                Page 204

 

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"Christ Who Is Our Life"  (Colossians 3:4). 

   “Christ is life (John 11:25; 14:6). Apart from him there is nothing but death. He is the Source of life, the Strength of life, the Sum of life and the Object of life. All life is in Christ. By nature we are all dead, spiritually dead, without life before God. But there is life in Christ for sinners. That life which is in Christ may be described in three ways:

1. JUDICIAL LIFE - When a guilty criminal is pardoned, he has his life restored to him in a legal sense.  While he is under the sentence of the law, his life is held under the bondage of the law's penalty. When he is pardoned, the law releases its hold upon him. In just that sense Christ is our life! He promises that all who believe on him ‘shall not come into condemnation; but (are) passed from death unto life’ (John 5:24). ‘He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son hath not life’ (I John 5:12).  The law of God will not release you from its hold and its condemnation until you come to Christ.  He alone can give you life.

2. SPIRITUAL LIFE - Spiritual life is the life that is begotten in the soul by the Holy Spirit in regeneration (John 5:25; Gal. 2:20).  When Adam sinned, we all died in him, in a legal, judicial sense.  And we all died in him spiritually (Rom. 5:12).  We were born without spiritual life. In the new birth the Spirit of God gives us a new life, a new will, a new nature. We are made ‘partakers of the divine nature’ (II Pet. 1:4).  Christ is formed in us (Col. 1:27). ‘You hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins’ (Eph. 2:1).

3. ETERNAL LIFE - The Lord Jesus Christ says, with regard to his sheep, those chosen sinners for whom he suffered and died, ‘I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish’ (John 10:28). That judicial life which Christ gives can never be revoked, for sin shall never be charged to those whom God has pardoned.  That spiritual life which we have in Christ can never be destroyed, for that life is ‘Christ in you.’  Until Christ can be destroyed the believer cannot perish!  The Son of God declares, ‘Whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die!’ (John 11:26).  Christ is our life.  And in him we shall live forever!”

Pastor Don Fortner

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“IT IS FINISHED” 

“When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, He said, IT IS FINISHED, and He bowed His head, and gave up the ghost.”

--John 19:30-- 

   “When our Lord hung in agonies and blood on the cursed tree, He cried with a loud voice, “IT IS FINISHED”.  One would thing that such a statement made by the very Son of God would carry a reasonable weight.  Yet, there are those who proclaim that the work is not truly finished unless they give their nod of faith which miraculously makes the work really effectual.  Setting aside that such thinking is utterly foolish, consider, for a moment, the arrogant presumption of such an incredible notion.  Apply this convoluted musing to any other finished work.  Go to a contractor after he has finished a building and is getting ready to turn the key ... stand before him, and in your most audacious voice, say, ‘Wait a minute, it is not finished unless I believe it is finished!’  Go to the composer who has spent his life in pursuit of the classic score.  After he has signed his masterpiece and the conductor is about to wave his baton ... stand up in the audience and cry in your pompous voice, ‘I have something to say about this so-called symphony.  It is not finished until I believe it is finished!’  It’s laughable, isn’t it?  No one in his right mind would do such a patently stupid thing!  How utterly foolish.  How much more conceited is anyone who, in the most haughty moment of dementia, think that anything they believe or do can make the finished work of Almighty God ‘unfinished’ by their lack of affirmative assent.  Finished means finished!  Done means done!  Our Lord really, freely, fully and forever redeemed His elect by His substitutionary sacrifice on Calvary’s tree.  ‘By one offering He hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified’ (Hebrews 10:14).  ‘By His own blood He entered once into the Holy Place, having obtained eternal redemption for us’ (Hebrews 9:12).  ‘But now once in the end of the world hath He appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself’ (Hebrews 9:26).

Pastor Tim James

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ANNOUNCEMENTS

ð In honor of August Birthday Celebrants, birthday cake will be served in the fellowship hall following this morning’s worship service.

ð Our worship service for this evening has been cancelled.

ð Cleaning duty this week:  Lee & Shirley Reeves

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SUGGESTED BIBLE READINGS FOR THIS WEEK

Monday                           Wednesday                  Friday

Psalm 43                      Psalm 44                   Psalm 45

Exodus 8                      Exodus 9                    Exodus 10

Revelation 19                Revelation 20             Revelation 21

Galatians 1                   Galatians 2                 Galatians 3                   

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FOOD FOR THOUGHT

THE SCHOOL OF GRACE

“He opened their understanding, that they might understand the scriptures” (Luke 24:45). 

     “Our Lord not only opens the scriptures, He also opens our UNDERSTANDING.  In opening the scriptures, He has many workers; but in opening the understanding, HE IS ALONE.  Many preachers can bring the scriptures to our minds, but only our Lord can open the mind to receive and believe the scriptures.  Other teachers can reach the ears; only Christ instructs the heart.  Others deal with externals; He imparts a LOVE for truth.  How many people of profound learning are quite ignorant of eternal things!  But the most uneducated often become skilled scholars in the school of grace when our Lord unfolds the mysteries of His kingdom.  Natural men have a veil over their hearts, ears, and eyes, and cannot understand the way of the Lord.  We were that way!  We who now see were totally blind.  Truth was to us as beauty in the darkness - UNKNOWN and UNNOTICED!  But our Lord, through His Holy Spirit, taught us in the only place where God’s truth can be learned - in the school of grace at the feet of our Lord.  Other schools can teach men WHAT to believe, but only Christ can show us HOW to believe and enable us to believe.  ‘And we know that the Son of God is come, and hath given us an understanding, THAT WE MAY KNOW HIM THAT IS TRUE, and we are in Him that is true, even in His Son Jesus Christ.  This is the true God, and eternal life’ (1 John 5:20).

--Copied

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CONFIDENCE IN GOD’S GRACE 

   “Do we really have confidence in the grace of God?  If we do, we will be satisfied with His grace and His grace alone.  If we have confidence in His grace, we will not try to offer up anything of our own as a reason for God to bless us.  If we have confidence in His grace, we will rest secure that, whatever happens in this life, God will preserve us blameless for the next life.  If we have confidence in His grace, we will not try to build a church with fleshy enticements but will be satisfied with preaching and teaching the grace of God, knowing that God will call His sheep by that gospel.  If we have confidence in the grace of God, we will not be quick to judge others or even ourselves, but will be patient with our brethren, knowing that God grows His people at His own rate and that what His grace has begun, His grace can finish.  If we have confidence in the grace of God, we will be much more at rest, knowing that all things are moving in their proper direction to their assigned goal.”

Pastor Joe Terrell

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   “While the church is in this world she is with Christ and Christ is with her, and she is safe.  All is well!  Sometimes our doubting hearts become fearful about the welfare and safety of the Lord’s church.  But our fears are ill-founded.  The church belongs to Christ.  He loved her, chose her, and redeemed her.  She is in His hands.  He will defend her, protect her, and perfect her.  The church of Christ and the cause of Christ are save.”

Pastor Don Fortner

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‘Abraham was fully persuaded that, what God had promised, He was able also to perform’ (Romans 4:21).  “It is true that the Word of God gives assurance and confidence to faith, but FAITH IS IN OUR GOD!  It is the character of our God that makes His Word infallible and unchangeable.  It is because WE BELIEVE GOD and know His sovereignty that we can rest on His promises in Christ.  ‘Hath He spoken and shall He not bring it to pass?’ (Isaiah 46:11).”

Pastor Henry Mahan

   “If a sinner is to be saved forever, justice must be satisfied, the law must be honored, sin must be destroyed, Satan must be defeated, the world must be overcome and God must be glorified.  There is but One who can do these things - the Lord Jesus Christ!

Pastor Jim Byrd

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Like Begets Like 

   “It is a contradiction to suppose that any heart should be charmed with a character just the opposite to its own.  The carnal mind is enmity against God: resenting His authority, disliking His holiness, hating His sovereignty, and condemning His justice.  In a word, it is immediately opposed to His glory as it shines in the glass of His law and the gospel.

     But one who has been divinely enlightened loves the Truth, because he has a frame of heart answerable thereto - just as the unregenerate soul loves the world because it suits his depraved tastes.  The regenerate discerns and feels that the law is righteous in requiring what it does, even though it condemns him for his disobedience.  He perceives that the gospel is exactly suited to his needs, and that its precepts are wise and excellent.”

--A. W. Pink

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   “WEAK faith is TRUE faith; for the Author and Finisher is the same as is the Object - OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST!

     A weak and frail hand can put food in the mouth as well as if it were a strong hand, seeing the body is not nourished by the hand at all but by the meat.  It is not faith that justifies, sanctifies, and redeems; IT IS CHRIST!

--John Rogers (1634)

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   “My friends, how vain and futile are any efforts on our part either to add unto or to improve upon the glorious righteousness of our blessed Lord Jesus.  Then what must I do to be saved?  ‘BELIEVE ON THE LORD JESUS CHRIST!’  Ours is to ‘BELIEVE’.  His is to ‘DO’.”

Pastor Henry Mahan