WELCOME TO RESCUE BAPTIST CHURCH
July 29, 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
“Great Is Thy Faithfulness” Page 43
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SCRIPTURE READING
Psalm 116
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OFFERTORY
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WORSHIP HYMN
“One Day” Page 170
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SPECIAL MUSIC
To be announced.
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Message Title
“Jesus Christ, The Everlasting Father”
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CLOSING HYMN
“Face To Face” Page 549
"His Name - The Everlasting Father"
--Isaiah 9:6--
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“Isaiah is not here declaring the doctrine of the Trinity, confusing the Persons of the Godhead. They are three distinct Persons, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, in one glorious Being, God. But Isaiah is declaring the Mediatorial character of the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the Son of God, the second Person of the Godhead. In his mediatorial character Christ is ‘The Everlasting Father.’ What does that mean? It means that...
CHRIST IS THE FATHER OF AN ELECT RACE. God's elect were given to Christ as his children and offspring in the covenant of grace from everlasting, and adopted into that family that bears his name. In time each elect child is born again by his regenerating grace through the power of his Spirit. Regeneration and faith do not make men and women the children of God, but reveal that they are the children of God from everlasting. And Christ is a Father to God's adopted children unto everlasting eternity. Because he can never die, we will never be left fatherless. He will be a Father, and we will be his sons and daughters forever. As our father, he supplies us with everlasting provisions of grace, clothes us with an everlasting garment of righteousness, gives us an everlasting inheritance, will promote us to everlasting honor, and will save us with an everlasting salvation.
CHRIST IS THE FATHER OF ETERNITY. He is the Author of eternal life. He purchased it for his elect and gives it to them. And he is the One to whom eternity belongs. He inhabits and possesses eternity. Christ is the eternal I AM, who is before all things, by whom all things consist. He was set up as our Mediatorial Everlasting Father from eternity, having glory with the Father before the world was, in whom eternal election was made, and with whom the everlasting covenant was established.
AND CHRIST IS THE FATHER OF THE WORLD TO COME. The law came by Moses, and he was the father of the legal dispensation. But grace and truth came by Christ, and he is the Father of this gospel dispensation. He is the One who makes all things new. All the doctrines and ordinances of the gospel dispensation were given in and by him. And when this gospel age has ended, Christ will come again to raise his children from the dead to inhabit a new heavens and a new earth, an eternal world of righteousness, peace, and joy. Of that eternal world which is yet to come, Christ is the Everlasting Father.”
Pastor Don Fortner
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“YE ARE BOUGHT WITH A PRICE” (1 Cor. 6:20)
“All of God’s elect were purchased with the blood of God (Acts 20:28). Jesus Christ, our Blessed Redeemer, bought us with a price. God our Father gave a particular people to His Son in the eternal covenant of grace before this world was created. But we come into this world with Adam’s fallen nature. Because of that sinful, fallen nature, we went astray as soon as we were born (Psalm 58:3). That old saying, “I’m in debt up to my eyeballs” does not describe lost sinners. “From the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness in us; but wounds and putrifying sores” (Isaiah 1:6). The whole of man, body soul and spirit, is corrupt through and through. Every fallen son and daughter of Adam, all of us, have sinned against our God. We owe a sin debt we cannot pay. God is so holy He CANNOT accept any thing we offer. We’re NOTHING BUT SIN, and anything we do in our unregenerate state is NOTHING BUT SIN! But those who were chosen in Christ belong to Him by virtue of a Divine Promise. And we belong to Him by virtue of a Divine Payment. Jesus Christ redeemed His chosen people with His own precious blood. Our sin debt has been paid in full by the perfect redeeming work of Christ our Savior. Who did we owe the sin debt to? God our Father! Who did Jesus Christ pay our sin debt to? God our Father! How did God our Father respond to the ransom price that was made for our sins? HE ACCEPTED THE PAYMENT! If you owed a huge debt to a certain hospital, and someone paid that debt for you and brought you a receipt saying “Paid in full”, there is no way that hospital could bring charges against you. You have the receipt, “Paid in full”! So it is with those who have experienced the miracle of The New Birth. We have the receipt. It’s recorded in the Word of God: “Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers; But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot” (1 Peter 1:18 - 19). Brethren, NOTHING can be laid to the charge of God’s elect. God Himself has justified all those for whom Christ died (Rom. 8:32 - 33). When God our Father accepted the ransom price Christ our Savior made to Him, we were made accepted in Christ (Eph. 1:3 - 7). How foolish, and how sinful it is, for anyone to believe in universal redemption. If God our Father had accepted a ransom price for the whole human race, absolutely no one could be sent to hell. But, OH! what peace to know our sin debt has been paid in full. We can have boldness in the day of judgment knowing that as Christ is, so are we in this world (1 John 4:17). Brethren, we’re not our own. We belong to Jesus Christ who bought us with a price. Therefore, glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s (1 Cor. 6:19 - 20).
Pastor
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ANNOUNCEMENTS
ð Paul and Mindy Mahan are vacationing in California, and will be in our area this afternoon. We will be honored to have these two faithful servants of God in tonight’s worship service. Paul is pastor of Central Grace Church in Rocky Mount, VA. I have asked Brother Paul to preach for us this evening. A time of fellowship with refreshments is planned following our worship service.
ð Our monthly Fellowship Dinner is scheduled for next Sunday afternoon following our morning worship service.
ð During our afternoon worship service next Sunday, we will come to The Lord’s Table (DV).
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SUGGESTED BIBLE READINGS FOR THIS WEEK
Monday Wednesday Friday
Psalm 31 Psalm 32 Psalm 33
Genesis 46 Genesis 47 Genesis 48
Revelation 7 Revelation 8 Revelation 9
2 Corinthians 2 2 Corinthians 3 2 Corinthians 4
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FOOD FOR THOUGHT
LAW VERSUS GOSPEL
“The law knows nothing of mercy; the gospel knows nothing else. By the law I learn that I am guilty, but by the gospel I learn that I am not guilty. By the gospel I learn that I am justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. By the law I learn that I have ruined myself by sin and stand exposed to divine vengeance; but by the gospel I learn that the Lord Jesus was made sin for me that I might be made the righteousness of God in him. By the law my hopes are destroyed, and by the gospel my expectations are raised. By the law I am stripped, exposed, condemned, and slain; but by the gospel I am quickened, justified, accepted, and clothed.”
Pastor Milford Hall, Sr.
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“.. the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ” (John 1:17).
“If any man ascribes anything of salvation, even the very least thing, to the free will of man, he knows nothing of grace, and he has not learned Jesus Christ rightly.”
--Martin Luther
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MOSES’ REWARD
[Moses] regarded disgrace for the sake of Christ as of greater value than the treasures of Egypt, because he was looking ahead to his reward.
(Hebrews 11.24)
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“Some might say that Moses was looking forward to His reward, so he was willing to bear the reproach of Christ and the suffering of God’s saints for the sake of the blessings he would receive later on. I agree. However, we must not think that the reward to which Moses’ looked consisted of heavenly mansions and golden streets. No, Christ, Himself, is the reward to which Moses looked; and every called sinner looks forward to that same reward. Christ is both the one we look to and the one we look for. As God had said to Abraham 400 years before, “I am thy shield and thy exceeding great reward” (Genesis 15.1)
Pastor Joe Terrell
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DESPISE NOT PROPHESYINGS (1 THESS. 5:20 - 21)
“Do not despise, make light of, nor be indifferent to the message of those who preach and interpret the word of God. I know that many in our day feel almost disgusted with the very word ‘preaching’ because there are so many foolish and ignorant persons giving out worthless sermons from the pulpits of this country. Therefore, let us prove all preaching by the scriptures and hold fast to that which is good! Let us all follow the example of the Bereans ‘who received the word preached with all readiness of mind, and SEARCHED THE SCRIPTURES daily to see of these things be so’ (Acts 17:11). Some hearers are critical of everything they hear, some people embrace anything they hear; the wise weigh all things they hear by the word of God (1 John 4:1 - 3).”
Pastor Henry Mahan
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“The Sovereignty of God is the stumbling b lock on which thousands fall and perish; and if we go contending with God about His sovereignty it will be our eternal ruin. It is absolutely necessary that we should submit to God as an absolute sovereign, and the sovereign of our souls; as one who may have mercy on whom He will have mercy and harden whom He will.”
--Jonathan Edwards.
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WHAT IS MEANT BY SOVEREIGN GRACE?
“Sovereign Grace is God’s grace. And God’s grace is Sovereign Grace. If it is not Sovereign Grace, it is not saving grace. Sovereign Grace is the truth. Sovereign Grace is the message that declares the electing love of the Father, the redeeming love of the Son, and the invincible love of the Holy Spirit. Sovereign Grace is the content of all true evangelism. Sovereign Grace is the Gospel. Any message that does not declare the Sovereign Grace of God in Christ Jesus is ‘another gospel!’ Sovereign Grace is saving grace!”
Pastor Todd Nibert
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“A faulty message will produce faulty methods, and a man-centered message will produce man pleasing methods. If God’s glory is not our aim, then man’s approval will be. For these reasons and more, we preach the gospel, which is the power of God, and keep our methods in line with that gospel.”
Pastor Paul Mahan
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“We may judge accurately of a man’s profession by this standard: Does he love the gospel of Jesus Christ? If he does not love the preaching of Christ, it can only be he does not love the Christ that is preached.”
Pastor Joe Terrell
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“God’s love for us in Christ, God’s choice of us in Christ, God’s righteousness fulfilled for us in Christ, God’s acceptance of us in Christ is all our salvation - not our works, feelings, nor our righteousness. ‘My God, when I approach Thy throne and all Thy glory see, this is my stay and this alone, that Jesus died for me’.”
Pastor Henry Mahan
