t                   oPastor John and wife Kathy  
 

 
 

Preaching God's Sovereign, Electing Grace   

RESCUE BAPTIST CHURCH

December 1, 2019

Say unto God, How terrible art thou in thy works! through the greatness of thy power shall thine enemies submit themselves unto thee. All the earth shall worship thee, and shall sing unto thee; they shall sing to thy name. Selah.

Psalm 66:3-4

 

Message

Eyes Wide Open

1 Timothy 2:14

LOVE NOT THE WORLD!

    Nothing is more dangerous to the souls of men than the love of the world. Nothing more effectually chokes out the influence of the gospel in a man's heart than the cares of this world. Nothing is more difficult to avoid than an undue attachment to this world. Therefore, John sets these four words up as a beacon. They stand in blazing letters to warn us of great danger. "LOVE NOT THE WORLD:"

    Beloved, this world and all that it offers is no more than a bubble that soon must burst. Your money, your farms, your houses, your influence, your families, everything here is temporary. It will all vanish away. We laugh at the small child who cries when the bubbles he is playing with burst. But, for a rational man to be so attached to a bubble is a most irrational thing.

    Are you God's child? Are you risen with Christ? Do you live in the hope of eternal glory? Then count this world to be a dead thing. Live no longer for this world. Set your heart on things above. Live above this pile of rubbish that must soon burn. Live to do the will of God, seek the glory of Christ, further the gospel of the grace of God, and serve the people of God. Quit seeking those things for which unbelieving men live; and seek those things which are above: life, immortality, and glory. "If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him."

    May the Lord God graciously burn these words into your heart and mine - "LOVE NOT THE WORLD!"

                                                                Pastor Don Fortner

THREE THINGS REGARDING GOD’S GRACE

1.     Grace is always sovereign. “Therefore, hath He mercy on whom He will have mercy, and whom He will He hardeneth” (Romans 9:18).

2.     Grace is always free. “Being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus” (Romans 3:24).

3. Grace is always saving. “By grace are ye saved” (Ephesians 2:8).

God’s grace is not an offer up for man’s acceptance or rejection.  His grace sovereignly, freely saves! We cannot believe grace without believing these three things regarding grace.

                                                                          Pastor Todd Nibert

HE IS THE SAME

     I have an aunt who will be eighty years old in July.  While we were visiting last week and discussing world affairs, she said, “This is such a strange world from the one I grew up in.”  Being born in 1901, she has seen many changes.

     Isn’t it wonderful that amidst all the changes that the world has undergone politically, morally and spiritually, our Lord remains the same?  He is the same yesterday, today and forever.  Praise His immutable, matchless and amazing grace!

     His precious blood still cleanses the believer from all his sins.  Not only his past sins and present sins, but also all his future sins.  He bore the sum total of the sins of His people.  All of my sins were future when He bore them at Calvary.

     His precious grace still reigns in the hearts of His people.  He still works in them, “both to will (desire) and to do (perform) of His good pleasure.”  The good work He begins in the believer, He will carry out to completion.  He will never leave nor forsake one single sheep!

     His precious incarnation is still manifest, in that He is “touched with the feeling of our infirmities.”  So total and complete were His earthly experiences that no saint can ever undergo any trial or temptation that is beyond His own experiences, thus His understanding and sympathy are with His people in every situation.  Though He bring trials upon us for our own good, our spiritual development and growth, His heart beats with ours in every pain and He cherishes every tear that falls from our eyes.

                                                                         Maurice Montgomery

 “Our nature struggles fiercely against being saved without our works and tries to deceive us with a grand illusion of our own righteousness.  So we may find ourselves attracted to a life that merely appears to be righteous.  Or because we know we aren’t righteous, we may be frightened by death or sin.  Therefore, we must learn that we should have nothing to do with any other way of becoming righteous, except through Christ alone.”

                                                                                        Martin Luther

THE IMPORTANCE OF KNOWING CHRIST

--Philippians 3:1-11--

  “I know that there are some things that are important to us; there are some people that are important to us.  However, in light of our great need of Christ nothing else is that important. We need his blood for cleansing, his righteousness for acceptance, his intercession for forgiveness; the list goes on.  We need Him.  As the woman with the issue of blood said, ‘If I can but touch the hem of his garment, I shall be made whole.’ Without Him we are lost, undone, and unaccepted by the Father. There is no material thing or human relationship that can supply my spiritual need; however, in Christ we are complete.  In Christ we have all that we need to stand in God’s presence accepted.  I cannot express how important it is to know Christ; all material things will burn up, and all fleshly relationships will be dissolved.  However, our relationship with Christ will never be dissolved nor diminished, and it will only grow sweeter. Judge the importance of everything in light of Him.”

            Pastor John Chapman 

The Work of God

"Then said they unto him, What shall we do, that we might work the works of God? Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent." (John 6:29)

  “The Scriptures show that the most pleasing element in faith to the eye of God is the fact that it HONORS HIS SON, for God dearly loves His Son.  There is no way we could ever comprehend the depth of the love of the Father towards His only begotten Son. The opposite of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, is confidence in our own righteousness.  This is a dishonor to the merit and salvation of Christ. But when we throw away all confidence in our own righteousness and have no hope but in the great atonement which Christ has made, we honor the Lord Jesus Christ, God delights in it, and will honor our faith.  He will not cast away a soul that clings to that great High Priest.”

          Pastor Milton Howard

SALVATION IS OF THE LORD

     God never intended for His Gospel to be complicated or hard to understand. It’s not hard to understand, however, it is impossible to believe apart from God’s divine revelation and intervention. But the message of the gospel is quite simple. I love the simplicity that is in Christ Jesus. The statement that Jonah made concerning his salvation and the salvation of all God’s elect is made in five simple words. “Salvation is of the Lord.” (Jonah 2:9) Does that statement need explaining? NO! Those five words mean exactly what they say.

     The Lord Jesus, when telling His disciples of His love for them said, “I have called you friends, for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you.”  But in order for us to know Who does the saving, our Lord simply states, “Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain: that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you.”  When it comes to our salvation, God’s Word is clear about Who does the electing and the choosing of a sinner. God does! The Lord meant exactly what He said.

     The problem today is that men and women have been convinced that they must participate in their salvation. Men and women want to do something. They want to have a part in the matter. They want to share in the glory of it. They want to add their will, work and worth, but God will not share His glory with another. (Isaiah 42:8)

     In John chapter 6, the Lord Jesus said, “No man can come unto me, except it were given unto him of my Father.” And immediately we read, “From that time many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him.”  Why do you think that was? Did they misunderstand the Lord Jesus? No, no, no. They understood exactly what He said, they just hated what He said.

     Salvation is a powerful work of grace that only God can do! Only God can give a dead sinner life and cause them to take sides with God against themselves. When a sinner does that, I can assure you that they are a saved sinner. (Ephesians 2:8-9)                     

                                                                                  David Eddmenson

 “Men do not know that God has provided a Righteousness for all believers.  For every soul born of Adam WHO WILL believe in Christ, there is a perfect righteousness - not ours, but God’s.  God came here in human form, not bound to be obedient, but being found in fashion as a man, He became obedient - obedient unto His own Law and fulfilled every jot and tittle of it.  He was obedient unto death, even the death of the cross, and His obedience is our obedience if we believe.  God looks at us as if we had done what His Son had done.  To that Righteousness is the eye of the believer ever to be directed, on that Righteousness must he rest, on that Righteousness must he live, in that Righteousness must he die, in that Righteousness must he appear before the Judgment Seat, in that Righteousness must he stand forever in the presence of the Righteous God Who required it and provided it freely to every poor sinner who will trust in God’s Son.”

                                                                  Brother Scott Richardson

 
Only those who are enlightened by God the Holy Spirit will believe in their heart and confess with their mouth that Jesus Christ is Lord of heaven and earth.  Those who do not confess that Jesus Christ is ‘Lord of all’ HAVE NOT CONFESSED CHRIST AT ALL!  As a man, Jesus Christ, by His supreme sacrifice at Calvary, removed all the sins of all of His chosen people from God’s sight forever.  As the resurrected, exalted God-man, He now rules over this whole universe, and everything in it, as ‘LORD OF ALL!’  Believe that Jesus Christ is your Savior, and bow down to Him as the Sovereign Despot, or die in your sins and suffer the righteous judgment of God in eternal torment.

                                                                            Pastor Gene Harmon

“Come unto Me, all you who are weary and heavy laden--and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28).

  “What did our Lord here signify, when He bade all the weary and heavy laden to come unto Him?  It is quite evident that coming to Christ is something more than a physical act.  Coming to Christ in the sense He here invited, is a going out of the soul after Him, a desire for Him, a seeking after Him, a personal embracing of and trusting in Him.  It is the heart turning from the love of sin to the Savior!  In short, coming to Christ is the whole soul of a guilty and self-condemned sinner--turning unto a whole Christ, in the exercises of all our facilities, responding to His claims upon us, prepared to unreservedly trust, sincerely love, and devotedly serve Him.”

                                                                                  A. W. Pink

December 8, 2019

That their hearts might be comforted, being knit together in love, and unto all riches of the full assurance of understanding, to the acknowledgement of the mystery of God, and of the Father, and of Christ; In whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.

                        Colossians 2:2&3

Message

The Mystery of The Faith

“And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh ...” (1 Timothy 3:16).

    There’s no arguing this truth.  In the Person of Jesus Christ, “God was manifest in the flesh.”  That same Jesus, who was born of a virgin, who worked in a carpenter’s shop, who was despised and rejected of men, who died on that cross at Mt. Calvary, WAS JEHOVAH GOD OUR CREATOR IN A HUMAN BODY!  That same Jesus has risen from the grave, and is now seated on His Throne of Absolute Sovereign Power in Heaven’s Glory, ruling over this whole universe and everything in it.  What a comfort it is to know that He who redeemed us with His own precious blood is our risen exalted Lord who works ALL THINGS after the counsel of His own will for the glory of His own name, and for the eternal good of His chosen people.  No wonder the Word of God says this to His enlightened children:

“Rejoice in the Lord always: and again I say, Rejoice” (Philippians 4:4).

                                                                   Pastor Gene Harmon

 “FAITH is that belief and trust which the saints have in the Lord Jesus Christ. Through faith they are both humbled and exalted, brought down and lifted up.  Through faith they see the exceeding sinfulness of sin and the pure righteousness of Jesus the Christ. Through faith they are condemned yet justified, guilty yet innocent, naked yet clothed, sorrowful yet ‘rejoicing with joy unspeakable and full of glory.’  No wonder the Bible speaks of faith as ‘precious faith’.”

                                                           Pastor Maurice Montgomery

December 15, 2019

Behold, the Lord GOD will come with strong hand, and his arm shall rule for him: behold, his reward is with him, and his work before him. He shall feed his flock like a shepherd: he shall gather the lambs with his arm, and carry them in his bosom, and shall gently lead those that are with young.

                                              Isaiah 40:10 & 11 

Message Title

Bringing One to Christ

THE GREATNESS OF GOD

Isaiah 40:9-11

This is a most beautiful address to Zion, the gospel church of Jesus, and to Jerusalem the beloved city. Some have thought that it had an allusion to the proclamation made by Cyrus, for the people in Babylon to return from their captivity; but certainly the grand and leading object was, to tell poor captive sinners in Zion, of their recovery from sin and Satan, by the Lord Jesus.

For here are the well-known character-offices of Christ. Will enemies oppose them? the Lord’s strong arm shall cast them down. Are Jesus’s sheep weak and tender? His compassion will be suited for them. The lamb unable to walk, he will carry in his bosom,

                      Joh 10:11.

I must not forget to observe that some have read the passage of Behold the Lord God will come with strong hand; Behold the Adonai shall come against the strong one; meaning the devil; and his arm shall rule for him; they have rendered, shall rule over him.

And if the words be accepted in this sense, as well as the other, they are not only most blessed, but agreeable to all the divine truths.

Our Lord himself beautifully illustrates the doctrine, under the figure of a strong man being overcome, by a stronger. Luk_11:15-22; Isa_49:24-26; Joh_12:31; Col_2:15; Heb_2:14; 1Jn_3:3.

Reader! do not fail to remark the blessed views this short but sweet passage gives of the Lord Jesus. He is described as destroying all his and his Church’s enemies, as a King; while feeding, nourishing, and protecting his people; with all the tenderness of a Shepherd.

                                                                          Robert Hawker

December 22, 2019

For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.

Isaiah 9:6

Message Title

The World Knew HIM Not

In Matthew, Christ fulfills the prophecy of the coming King; in Luke, that of a promised Saviour.

The virgin bringing forth a son was to call His name Immanuel, which, being interpreted is “God with us” OUR KING” (Mat_1:23). But in Luke’s Gospel, by repeated statement, “Jesus, our Saviour”. What unspeakable joy to find these offices in the same man. If the condemned criminal finds in a King or President, whose word is power, a friend, he is happy indeed that those offices combine in one. The hope of the world of sinners is in a single circumstance, namely, that the compassionate Christ is also THE KING OF KINGS, whose speech is the end of all discussion, whose will knows no successful opposition, and whose compassion is exceeding great!

O worship the King, all glorious above,
And gratefully sing, His wonderful love;
Our Shield and Defender, the Ancient of days,
Pavilioned in splendor, and girded with praise.

O tell of His might, and sing of His grace,
Whose robe is the light, whose canopy space;
His chariots of wrath the deep thunderclouds form,
And dark is His path on the wings of the storm.


Thy bountiful care what tongue can recite?
It breathes in the air, it shines in the light,
It streams from the hills, it descends to the plain,
And sweetly distills in the dew and the rain.


Frail children of dust, and feeble as frail,
In Thee do we trust, nor find Thee to fail;
Thy mercies how tender! how firm to the end!
Our Maker, Defender, Redeemer, and Friend.

                     J.C. Ryles

December 29, 2019

And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory.

1 Timothy 3:16

Message Title

Gleanings From 1 Timothy (pt9)

The Mystery of godlyness

There is nothing that the church does that is more important than assembling to worship Christ. To gather in order to honor Christ through praying, preaching and hearing the Gospel is such an important thing that each of us should approach it very seriously. Let each one prepare himself in heart and body so as to arrive on time, having the heart clothed with a desire to hear from Christ and the body dressed modestly so as not to attract attention to one’s self. Let each of us enter into every song and prayer, closing out the thoughts of the world and all the cares it loads on us. Let each of us listen to the Word of God with the intensity of baby birds chirping for food. In short, let each of us give himself to worship in this hour as though there were nothing better or more important in all the world to do – because there isn’t.                                              

                                                                           Joe Terrell

 
“In Gen. 3:15; Gen. 3:21 we have the first Gospel sermon which was ever preached on this earth, and that, by the Lord Himself.  Life must come out of death.  Cain and Abel, and the whole human race, sinned in Adam (Rom. 5:12; Rom. 5:18 - 19), and the wages of sin is death, penal death.  Either I must pay those wages and suffer that death, or another — an innocent one, on whom death has no claim — must pay those wages in my stead.  And in order to my receiving the benefit of that Substitute’s compassion, there must be a link of contact between me and him.  Faith it is which unites to Christ.  Saving faith, then, in its simplest form, is the placing of a Substitute between my guilty self and a sin-hating God.”

                                                                                         A. W. Pink

The Gospel

  “Those who WEARY of hearing the gospel, who LOSE INTEREST in hearing the gospel, and LOSE THEIR NEED of hearing the gospel of Christ, and His redeeming love and grace, have never REALLY heard the gospel at all.  If one can leave Christ, he has never truly met Him! (John 6:65-69).”

                                                           Pastor Maurice Montgomery