t                   oPastor John and wife Kathy  
 

 
 

Preaching God's Sovereign, Electing Grace   

 

RESCUE BAPTIST CHURCH

August 2 2020

“And all the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing: and he (God) doeth according to his will in the army of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth: and none can stay his hand, or say unto him, What doest thou?”

Daniel 4:35



SCHEDULED MEETINGS

               Sunday Morning Bible Study           10:00 AM Simon Peter an Apostle of Chirst (pt 68) 

               Sunday Morning Worship                 11:00 AM

               Friday Night Bible Study                     7:30 PM


OPENING HYMN      “REDEEMED”      PAGE  521

 
SCRIPTURE READING

PSALMS   42
 

WORSHIP HYMN     “LEAD ME TO CALVARY“      PAGE  176

 
DEVOTIONAL

 
MESSAGE

“The Mind In You" (PT 11)

 
CLOSING HYMN       “WHAT A WONDERFUL SAVIOUR”       PAGE  81

 


SUGGESTED SCRIPTURE READING FOR THE WEEK 

Sunday 2Thes     Monday Lev 25-27     Tuesday 1Chr 1-4

Wednesday Ps 93-95     Thursday Prov 16

                    Friday Dan 1-6        Saturday John 3-4
 


“No Condemnation” Case Dismissed

--Romans 8:1--

  “This is what God the Holy Spirit tells us about every believer’s relationship to the law.  It is important to remember that these words are found right in the middle of Paul’s arguments for godliness, right in the middle of his discourse on the believer’s sanctification in Christ.  This is the basis of and motive for all true godliness.  ‘There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.’

    Because sin cannot be imputed to those whose sins were imputed to Christ (Rom. 4:8), because we are dead to the law (Rom. 7:4), because we died in the person of our great Surety and Substitute when he died for us, we are now and forever free from all possibility of condemnation.  I read a story a long time ago which illustrates Paul’s doctrine perfectly.

    Sam Houston led the battle that brought defeat to Santa Anna and his Mexican army at the battle of San Jacinto.  After Texas became a Republic with Sam Houston as it’s president, the law provided free land to any soldier who had fought along side of Sam Houston at San Jacinto.

    On one occasion a man by the name of Knobby Horsham was accused of defrauding another farmer of some land.

    When the farmer who had accused Knobby of fraud appeared in court, he was surprised to find none other than President Sam Houston himself there to defend the accused.  Knobby was considered a man of ill repute.  Nine of the jurors seated were farmers who all had been defrauded by rascals like Knobby.

    Nevertheless, when the trial began, Judge Phinizy, asked Sam Houston if he had any witnesses. ‘Only one, your Honor’, Houston replied.

    Limping to the witness box, his right leg dragging from a serious wound sustained in the battle, Houston walked over to the defendant, and looked down on him as a loving father might look on a wayward son, despite the fact that Knobby Horsham was a known rogue who had wasted his life.

    As the courtroom sat in silent expectation, President Houston uttered only two sentences. ‘Knobby, you’ve heard the serious charges made against you.  Where were you on the afternoon of April 21, 1836?’

    Knobby Horsham looked up like a little child and whispered, ‘With you in the front-line at San Jacinto.’  ‘The defense rests’,  Houston said, taking his seat. ‘Case dismissed’, Judge Phinizy cried.

    My brother, my sister, O believing sinners, we were there at Calvary with Christ when the horrible wrath of God fell on him. ‘There is therefore now, no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus …’  Case dismissed!”

                                                                            Pastor Don Fortner

 


HIS GRACE AND POWER PREVAILS

“What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us?” (Romans 8:31).

  “What a testimony to the sovereign power of God’s grace.  Nothing can prove a hindrance to the all-powerful grace of Jehovah!  If God be for a man, nothing shall stop God from saving that man. ‘Yes, this is true’, say some, ‘providing the man is willing to be saved.’  What!  You mean to say that a grace so powerful that the gates of hell cannot prevail against it, a love so powerful that not anything created – neither angel nor Satan, neither death nor life, neither present nor future – can withstand His determination, can, nonetheless, be halted by the stubborn will of a sinful man?  Such a thought is laughable on the very face of it.

    My will cannot so much as stop a virus from making me miserable with the flu!  Shall I then stop the living God from doing anything He wants to do?  It is only the puffed up arrogance of sinful man that accounts his will of any effect.  Many times my foolish will has worked against my eternal soul.  But God was for me and overrode my will.  Even though I would not, He would; and His grace prevailed in all things (including my will) to work them together for my eternal salvation.  Truly, if God be for a man, who can prevail against him? I t would require prevailing against God!”

                                                                                   Pastor Joe Terrell


ABOUT CASUAL WORSHIP

           “I believe that our thoughts of God are reflected in every part of our worship service.  What part will the preaching of the Word of God have in the service?  Will the truth of Christ and His saving work be the message?  Are the hymns that we sing such that glorify God?  Are the words true to Scripture?  Are we faithful to join with God's people?  Do we come on time?  If late, do we come in quietly?  Do we dress appropriately?

      We do not set rules and would never want to say anything that would keep anyone from coming to hear the Gospel.  However, we live in a time when everyone wants to be casual, but there is nothing casual about the worship of God Almighty.          ~ Milton Howard     

                                    


                                             
ANNOUNCEMENTS

·       Join us for our FELLOWSHIP DINNER concluding this morning service.

·       We will come to THE LORD’S TABLE during our afternoon worship service, Lord willing
 


Love and Justice

Someone may ask; “How could A loving God send someone to hell?” God has never, nor will He ever, send anyone He loves to hell. The problem with that question is twofold. First, it assumes God loves everyone. That simply is not true. There is no sense in which God loves everyone. His love is perfectly holy, eternal, and immutable. I am the Lord and I change not, therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed (Malachi 3:6). I have loved thee with an everlasting love (Jeremiah 31:3). His love is particular for His elect. Jacob have I loved but Esau have I hated (Romans 9:13). Most important, His love is only found in Christ. Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord (Romans 8:39).

The second problem with that question is that it ignores God‘s justice. Truth is, a loving God would never send someone to hell, but a JUST God will and must. He will by no means clear the guilty (Exodus 34:7). His justice must be satisfied. Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins (I John 4:10).   

                                                  Greg Elmquist                                                                                                                                                          


ORIGINALITY

  “Don't worry about originality, brethren; Christ never claimed it. He says, "The Words that I speak are not mine, but His that sent me."  The Holy Spirit did not claim it; for it is written, "He shall not speak of Himself, but whatsoever He shall hear, that shall He speak." In fact, the only original thinker and speaker in the Bible is he of whom it is written, "When he speaketh a lie He speaketh of his own" (John 8.44).

                         C. H. Spurgeon
 


"NOT MINE" and "NOT LOVED"

--Romans 9:25—

  ‘As he says in Hosea: “I will call them ‘my people’ who are not my people; and I will call her 'my loved one' who is not my loved one,"–Romans 9:25

    It is written in the book of Hosea that Hosea's wife, Gomer, bore him a son.  Afterward, it is written that Gomer bore two more children.  These two children were evidently not Hosea's, so they were named, "Not Mine" and "Not Loved."  Life for these children must have been difficult.  Every time they were called on, they were reminded of their illegitimacy and the fact that they had no right to live in Hosea's house.  Their only hope of a happy life and an inheritance was Hosea's grace.  They could not obligate Hosea to show them any good.  But, if Hosea wanted to do them good, he could: He could sovereignly call them "Mine", and sovereignly choose to love those who had no claim on his love.

    What a beautiful picture of God's sovereign grace!  By nature we are "Not Mine" and "Not Loved."  Rather than children of God, we are children of wrath.  We have no claim on God or His love. We have no home or inheritance.  But in sovereign love and mercy, God has called us "Mine" and "Beloved."

    I imagine that those children had a special love for Hosea as he took them as his own.  And you can imagine how loved they felt when, in public, someone would call them by their old names, and Hosea would step forward and say, "No, let me introduce you to "Mine" and "Loved."  And how blessed it is for us when law, conscience and Satan step up to call us by our old names only to hear God say through the gospel, "No, these are 'Mine,' and 'Loved.'  In the very next verse Paul quotes, "It will happen that in the very place where it was said to them, 'You are not my people,' they will be called 'sons of the living God.'"  Freewillers and legalists can have their "gospels". I rejoice in free and sovereign grace!”

                                                                                      Pastor Joe Terrell


 IS OUR MESSAGE OFFENSIVE?

  “Paul called his message ‘the offense of the cross’ (Galatians 5:11).  Again and again he warned that the true gospel of God's grace and glory would meet with great opposition from the religious world and the natural world. ‘The preaching of the cross is foolishness’ (1 Corinthians 1:18). ‘The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God’ (1 Corinthians 2:14).  Our Lord said, ‘Marvel not, my brethren, if the world hate you’ (1 John 3:13).  He also said, ‘They shall put you out of the synagogues (organized religion): yea, the time cometh, that whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God service’ (John 16:2).  If what we preach is NOT offensive to the religionist and to the worldling, then it is NOT THE GOSPEL OF CHRIST.  I repeat, it is not the gospel!

1. GOD'S ABSOLUTE SOVEREIGNTY in creation, providence and redemption offends man's claim to free will! ‘We will not have this man to REIGN over us’ (Luke 19:14).

2. The preaching of TOTAL DEPRAVITY AND INABILITY offends man's dignity and claim to personal righteousness. ‘We be not born of fornication’, that is, ‘We be not (they say) born in sin.’ ‘We may not be perfect, but we are not totally corrupt in God's sight.’

3. The gospel of Christ comes by REVELATION, and this offends man's natural wisdom. The college professor knows as much about the mysteries of grace as the farmhand, which is nothing apart from the Spirit of God.

4. EFFECTUAL REDEMPTION through the Person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ, our Substitute and Sin-offering, offends man's pride. Men would have God do all that He wants to do and all that He can do, but there must be a work left for the sinner to perform, that we might share somewhat in the glory.

5. THE LORDSHIP OF JESUS CHRIST offends man's desire for recognition here and hereafter. ‘They said unto him, Grant unto us that we may sit, one on thy right hand, and the other on thy left hand, in thy glory" (Mark 10:37). ‘Let us have a system of rewards to distinguish us in some way from the beggar.’ We have established our social levels here and choose to continue them in heaven.”                                                                                                                                    Pastor Henry Mahan

 


Sunday August 9, 2020

 Psalms 27:4 

One thing have I desired of the LORD, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the LORD, and to enquire in his temple. 


SCHEDULED MEETINGS

Sunday Morning Bible Study             10:00 AM Simon Peter an Apsotle of Christ (pt 69)

Sunday Morning Worship                   11:00 AM

               Friday Night Bible Study           7:30 PM

 



OPENING HYMN    “Revive Us Again”     PAGE 295

 
SCRIPTURE READING

PSALMS  43

WORSHIP HYMN  “ ‘Tis So Sweet to Trust in Jesus”  PAGE 350

 
DEVOTIONAL

MESSAGE

"The Word of Life" (PT 12)

 
CLOSING HYMN   “Jesus Paid It All”       PAGE 210

 


SUGGESTED SCRIPTURE READING FOR THE WEEK

Sunday 1 Tim 1-3     Monday Num 1-4     Tuesday 1 Chr 5-9

Wednesday Ps 96-98           Thursday Prov 17-18

                      Friday Dan 1-6                Saturday Matt 3-4
 

  “But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.” (1 John 1:7)

If the child of God walks by faith with and in Christ who is the Light, there are at least two things that are certain. We WILL have fellowship one with another, and we WILL NOT have any sin.

                                                              Pastor David Eddmenson


“Faith is necessary for salvation.  But we do not look to our faith to save us; rather, in faith, we look to Christ.  Repentance is necessary for salvation.  But we do not look to our repentance to save us; rather, in repentance, we turn to Christ.  There are graces, which God works in us as He saves us.  But these graces are never to be the object of our trust, confidence or hopeful gaze.  All the graces God gives us in salvation are to be used to look to, turn to, appreciate, and lay hold of Christ, who is our Salvation!”
                                                                          Pastor Joe Terrell


Salvation belongeth unto the LORD: thy blessing is upon Thy people. Selah (Psalms 3:8)
“This verse reveals the substance and totality of the Gospel. It declares that salvation to needy sinners is altogether by the grace of God. It was God Almighty who chose His people in Christ before the foundation of the world that they should be holy and without blame before him in love. It was God Almighty who redeemed His people by the shedding of his own blood. And it is God Almighty who quickens all that He has everlastingly loved in regenerating grace. Yes, “salvation belongeth unto the Lord,” and “Thy blessing”…Salvation!...Christ Himself (Luke 2:30) “is upon (on) Thy people.”

                                                                     Pastor Marvin Stalnaker


    “It is by the revelation of Christ in the sinner’s heart that God persuades him to venture his soul in hope of a full, free, and complete reconciliation to God.  He awakens the sinner by a new birth to see that gospel preaching is the reading of the will and his inheritance and the testator of the will is seated at the right hand of God to make it sure.  It is called a good hope, a living hope, a sure hope, and an anchor of the soul.”

                                                                      Pastor Darvin Pruitt


Sunday August 16, 2020

Eph 1:4 - 5

According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love: 

Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved.  In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace;  Wherein he hath abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence; Having made known unto us the mystery of his will,

SCHEDULED MEETINGS

Sunday Morning Bible Study        10:00 AM Simon Peter an Apostle of Christ (pt 70)

               Sunday Morning Worship      11:00 AM

               Friday Night Bible Study          7:30 PM


OPENING  HYMN     I Am Thine, O Lord            PAGE 358

 
SCRIPTURE READING

PSALMS 

44


WORSHIP HYMN      The Solid Rock                   PAGE 404 

 
DEVOTIONAL 

MESSAGE

"Looking for Mercy" Pt 13

  
CLOSING HYMN   Wonderful Grace of Jesus    PAGE 198

  

SUGGESTED SCRIPTURE READING FOR THE WEEK 

Sunday I Tim 4-6      Monday Num 5-8      Tuesday I Chron 10-14

Wednesday   Psalms 99-101           Thursday    Prov 19

Friday   Hosea 1-7                Saturday   John 7-9
 

Our sincere condolences to Sarah and family
“They weave the spider’s web.”

Isaiah 59:5

“See the spider’s web and behold in it a most suggestive picture of the hypocrite’s religion.  It is meant to catch his prey: the spider fattens himself on flies, and the Pharisee has his reward. Foolish persons are easily entrapped by the loud professions of pretenders, and even the more judicious cannot always escape. Philip baptized Simon Magus; whose guileful declaration of faith was so soon exploded by the stern rebuke of Peter. Custom, reputation, praise, advancement, and other flies are the small game which hypocrites take in their nets. A spider’s web is a marvel of skill: look at it and admire the cunning hunter’s wiles.  Is not a deceiver’s religion equally wonderful?  How does he make so barefaced a lie appear to be a truth?  How can he make his tinsel answer so well the purpose of gold?  A spider’s web comes all from the creature’s own bowels.  The bee gathers her wax from flowers, the spider sucks no flowers, and yet she spins out her material to any length.  Even so hypocrites find their trust and hope within themselves; their anchor was forged on their own anvil, and their cable twisted by their own hands.  They lay their own foundation, and hew out the pillars of their own house, disdaining to be debtors to the sovereign grace of God.  But a spider’s web is very frail. It is curiously wrought, but not enduringly manufactured.  It is no match for the servant’s broom, or the traveler’s staff. The hypocrite needs no battery of Armstrongs to blow his hope to pieces, a mere puff of wind will do it.  Hypocritical cobwebs will soon come down when the besom of destruction begins its purifying work.  Which reminds us of one more thought, viz., that such cobwebs are not to be endured in the Lord’s house: he will see to it that they and those who spin them shall be destroyed forever.  O my soul, be thou resting on something better than a spider’s web.  Be the Lord Jesus thine eternal hiding-place.”                                                                                                                                                                              

                                                                                              C. H. Spurgeon


Sunday August 23, 2020

1 Corinthians 2:12 

Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God

SCHEDULED MEETINGS

Sunday Morning Bible Study    10:00 AM Simon Peter an Apostle of Christ (pt 69)

Sunday Morning Worship         11:00 AM

Friday Night Bible Study             7:30 PM

 
OPENING HYMN

“The Church is One Foundation”       PAGE 277

 
SCRIPTURE READING

PSALMS

45

 
WORSHIP HYMN

“All Hail The Power Of Jesus' Name”   PAGE 97

 
DEVOTIONAL

MESSAGE

Philippians Series # 14

 
CLOSING HYMN  

“My Faith Has Found a Resting Place”    PAGE 405

 

SUGGESTED SCRIPTURE READING FOR THE WEEK

 

Sunday 2Tim 1-2      Monday Num 9-12    Tuesday Psalms 102-104

Wednesday Prov 20-21           Thursday 1 Chron 15-19

Friday Hosea 8-14                Saturday John 10-12


‘As he is, so are we in this world’

--1 John 4:17—

  “We all know that believers in this world bear a likeness to our Lord in his humiliation.  As he was in this world, so are we in this world.  As he was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, so are we.  As he was the object of the world’s hatred, so are we.  As he was tempted by Satan, so are we.  As he was despised and forsaken of men, so shall we be. As he went through many sufferings and death to glory, so must we.  This is a great blessing of grace and a wondrous condescension of mercy, that we should have such a likeness to our Redeemer.

    But our text does not say, ‘as he was’. It says, ‘as he is’.  Do you behold the Son of God, our Savior, in glory?  There sits God in our nature.  And though we are not yet there personally, we are there in our Representative.  And being in Christ, we are like Christ.  As he is the Son of God, we are the sons of God.  As he is loved by God with an everlasting and unchangeable love of complacency and delight, so are we.  Yes, God loves us just as he loves his well-beloved Son. As Christ is chosen of God and precious, so are we chosen and precious in his sight.  Oh, blessed grace!  As our Lord in heaven is perfectly righteous, so are we!  He is justified and acquitted from that charge of sin, which he voluntarily took upon himself.  And in him we are completely righteous.  I wish that we could all grasp this truth - Christ is all our righteousness, and we are immaculately righteous in him. ‘With his spotless garments on I am as holy as God’s Son!’ ‘In him is no sin.’  And, if I am in him, I am freed from, justified from and cleansed from all sin in the sight of God.

    But John specifically says here that there is a likeness between the nature of God in heaven and his children upon the earth. ‘God is love.’  And the children of God in this world reflect this nature of their Father in heaven.  The love of God is patient, kind, faithful, forgiving and sincere.  And all of his children reflect this nature of love in this world, for ‘As he is, so are we in this world’.”

                                                                           Pastor Don Fortner


Sunday August 30, 2020

Palm 115:1 

 "Not unto us, O LORD, not unto us, but unto thy name give glory, for thy mercy, and for thy truth's sake."

 SCHEDULED MEETINGS

Sunday Morning Bible Study    10:00 AM Simon Peter an Apostle of Christ (pt )

Sunday Morning Worship          11:00 AM

Friday Night Bible Study             7:30 PM

 
OPENING HYMN             PAGE 262

HOLY, HOLY, HOLY

 
SCRIPTURE READING

PSALMS

46

 
WORSHIP HYMN      PAGE  43

GREAT IS THY FAITHFULNESS

 
DEVOTIONAL

 
MESSAGE

PHILIPPIANS SERIES #15

 
CLOSING HYMN      PAGE 409

I KNOW WHOM I HAVE BELIEVED

 

SUGGESTED SCRIPTURE READING FOR THE WEEK

Sunday 2 Tim 3-4     Monday Num 13-16     Tuesday 1 Chr 20-24

Wednesday Ps 105-107           Thursday Prov 22

                      Friday Joel                Saturday John 13-15


ANNOUNCEMENT 

·       We will have our FELLOWSHIP DINNER next Sunday

 
  “Those who teach universal redemption do not know the Gospel of God.  And, those who believe that one for whom Christ died; one who has been given faith to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, having been quickened by God the Holy Spirit, can lose their salvation and wind up in eternal torment, do not know the Gospel of Jesus Christ either. There’s only ONE GOSPEL, and God pronounces a curse on anyone who would dare pervert the Gospel of His Sovereign Grace (Galatians 1:6 - 9).  Jesus Christ saved “His people from their sins” (Matthew 1:21).  When our Redeemer laid down His life for His sheep, He “.. had by himself purged our sins ...”  Our Lord didn’t sit down on His throne of glory until the sins of His people had been purged from God’s sight forever (Hebrews 1:3; 10:14 - 17).  The throne our King is seated on “.. is forever and ever ..” (Hebrews 1:8).  Who, or what, can remove Jesus Christ from His throne?  All power in heaven and earth has been given to Him (Matthew 28:18).  Absolutely NOTHING can separate the Lord’s people “.. from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:35 - 39).  Our Blessed Redeemer is “Declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead” (Romans 1:4).  Brethren, Jesus Christ is not only seated on His throne in heaven as the Sovereign Monarch over this whole universe, He is seated there as the Surety of His people.  As our Surety, our Lord Jesus “Is able to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them” (Hebrews 7:22 -25).  “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved” (Acts 16:31).  But make sure you believe on the Christ of God who died, and rose again, “...according to the Scriptures.” (1 Cor. 15:3 - 4).”

                                                                                 Pastor Gene Harmon

   “GOD WITHOUT MAN remains God, over all, blessed forever.  He is the glorious God, whether man acknowledges that truth or not.  BUT MAN WITHOUT GOD is nothing, he is vanity, he is useless except to be fuel for the flames of hell.”                          

                                                                                          Pastor Jim Byrd