WELCOME TO RESCUE BAPTIST CHURCH
Sunday Morning, July 12, 2015
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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
“O Come, Let Us Adore Him” Page 82
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SCRIPTURE READING
Psalm
106:1 - 20
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OFFERTORY
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WORSHIP HYMN
“There Is a Fountain”
Page 196
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SPECIAL MUSIC
To be announced.
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Message Title
“Things
That Accompany Salvation” (Hebrews
6:9)
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CLOSING HYMN
“Jesus Saves”
Page 306
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Discovering
Christ In Hebrews (Hebrews 6:1 - 10)
“We Are Persuaded Better
Things Of You”
It is a sad fact, but a
fact nonetheless, that many who begin the race well soon fall by the
wayside. Many, who run well for a
season, in time, walk no more among us.
Tares are always sown among the wheat.
Goats will always be found amongst God’s sheep in this world.
Often, those who were once named among God’s saints and honored as
brothers and sisters in Christ abandon Christ, his gospel, and his people. Thereby proving that they never were truly
one of us (1John 2:19). Such apostates
are described in Hebrews 6:1-6).
A Distinction Illustrated
In Hebrews 6:7-8,
the Holy Spirit illustrates the fact that the preaching of the gospel, like
rain falling from heaven, has profoundly different results upon the people who
hear it. To some it is a savor of life
unto life. To others it is a savor of
death unto death.
When the gospel is blessed of God to the
hearts of chosen, redeemed sinners, by the power of his almighty grace, it
springs up unto life everlasting (Hebrews 6:7). But those who hear the gospel and
reject it as a thing to be despised, are themselves rejected of God, cursed
forever, and shall be burned like useless weeds in hell (Hebrews 6:8).
Let us lay these things
to heart and soberly consider them. May
these warnings and examples ever cause us to run to Christ, lay hold on him
with both hands, and hold him with a death grip. However, the passage does not end with such
terrifying warnings. Lest any true
believer be terrified with the fear that he may, after all perish, the Holy
Spirit inspired the Apostle to speak in Hebrews 6:9-10 of…
A Persuasion Of Grace
"But, beloved, we
are persuaded better things of you, and things that accompany salvation, though
we thus speak. For God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labor of
love, which ye have showed toward his name, in that ye have ministered to the
saints, and do minister."
How sweet! How blessed!
How encouraging! Though he solemnly warned these men and women, because he
cared for their souls, of the danger of apostasy and the necessity of
perseverance, he saw in them evident tokens of grace, “and things that accompany salvation.”
Pastor Don Fortner
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“But, beloved, we are persuaded better things
of you”
“The apostle addresses the believing
Hebrews, as ‘beloved’; being beloved by the Lord, not as the descendants of
Abraham, but as the elect of God, and so as loved with an everlasting love; and
which might be known to themselves, by its being shed abroad in their hearts,
and by their being called by grace, and by their love to him, and to his
people: and from hence they might conclude they should not fall away, as the
apostates before spoken of; since, in consequence of being beloved by God, they
were chosen in Christ unto salvation; Christ was given to die for them; they
had the Spirit sent down into their hearts; they were justified, pardoned, and
adopted; nor could they be separated from the love of God: and the apostle also
so calls them, because they were beloved by him, not merely as being his
countrymen, but as saints: and this he says to testify his affection to them;
to show that what he said was not from hatred of them, or prejudice to them;
and that his exhortations, cautions, and reproofs, might be better taken; and
particularly that they might credit what he here says, that he was ‘persuaded
better things’ of them, than what he had said of others in Hebrews 6:4 even such as are expressed in Hebrews 6:10 he was persuaded they had the
true grace of God; whereas the above mentioned persons had only gifts, when in
the height of their profession; and the least degree of grace is better than
the greatest gifts men can be possessed of: grace makes a man a good man, not
gifts; a man may have great gifts and not be a good man; grace is useful to a
man's self, gifts are chiefly useful to others; grace makes men fruitful, when
gifts leave them barren in the knowledge of Christ; grace is lasting, when
gifts fail, and cease and vanish away; grace will abide the fire of
persecution, when gifts will not; grace is saving, gifts are not:
“And
things that accompany salvation”
Which enter into salvation; are
ingredients in it, and parts of it, and with which salvation is connected; such
as faith, love, &c. or which mutually touch or follow one another in the
chain of salvation; as to be predestinated, justified, called, adopted, sanctified,
and, at last, glorified:.”
Excerpt from John Gill’s Commentary (Heb.
6:9)
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ANNOUNCEMENTS
Our
monthly Music & Testimony Night is scheduled for this evening
commencing at 6:30 PM.
Our Friday
Night Bible Study will reconvene this Friday commencing at 7:30
PM.
We
will come to The Lord’s Table during our worship service next
Sunday evening (DV).
***** Cleaning duty this week: Gene & Judy Harmon *****
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SUGGESTED
BIBLE READINGS FOR THIS WEEK
Monday Wednesday Friday
Genesis
13 Psalm 7 Matthew 10
Genesis
14 Psalm 8 Matthew 11
Genesis
15 Psalm 9 Matthew 12
Acts 7 Acts 8 Acts 9
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FOOD
FOR THOUGHT
“It’s
amazing how history repeats itself! We seem to go around in a circle. During
the days of the Reformation, when superstition,
tradition, and the human will reigned in religion, the reformers waged
their battle for the glory of God and the true Gospel on three points.
1. The
Scriptures Alone: ‘Let God be true
and every man a liar.’ We bow to the Word apart from visions,
revelations or opinions of men.
2.
Grace Alone: Salvation
only by free, sovereign, and full grace, apart from law, works, or any other
contribution of any sort.
3.
Christ Alone: ‘By Himself
purged our sins.’ His
person and work effectually, totally, and eternally redeemed His elect. This is where the battle rages today in
America, where fundamentalism with its emotion, easy believism, free-will, and
super programs seems to have captured the people. It’s back to this three-fold foundation for
every true preacher.
Pastor
Henry Mahan
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Hebrews 6:1 - 12
“In the opening of this paragraph, we have
those memorable verses of scripture, which, for want of due attention to divine
teaching, by the perversion of some, and the mistaken apprehension of others,
have given rise, to much anxiety, in weak minds, through the slenderness of
their faith. There can be no doubt, but
that God the Holy Ghost is drawing the portrait of finished hypocrites; for
there is not a single feature, in the whole of what is represented, of those
falling away, which belongs to a child of God.
The persons here described, under such a flaming profession, never were
in grace; and therefore impossible to have fallen from grace. They fell from a profession only, and as
such, it became impossible to renew them again to repentance. ..... For my own
part, I am very fully convinced, that the passage, hath not one reference whatever
to the Church of God: that the Lord the Holy Ghost is speaking of hypocrites,
and the unregenerate only; and that the whole subject, if duly considered, is
calculated more to comfort, than to distress the Lord’s people.”
Excerpt from Robert Hawker’s Commentary (Heb.
6:1 - 12)
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THE HEART OF GOD AND THE
HEARTS OF HIS CHILDREN
“My son, if thine heart be
wise, my heart shall rejoice, even mine. Yea, my reins shall rejoice, when thy
lips speak right things. Let not thine heart envy sinners: but be thou in the
fear of the Lord all the day long.”
– Proverbs 23:15-17
“Now,
when Solomon penned these words, he directed them toward his own son whom he
loved from the heart. And what a
reflection this is of the heart of our God toward those whom he calls his
children! God says, to each one, ‘My
son, if thine heart be wise, my heart shall rejoice, even mine.’ And he says, ‘Yea, my reins
shall rejoice' '--(‘My innermost being will rejoice)--when
thy lips speak right things.’ My
friends, if the thought of God’s heart rejoicing has no effect on you, then you
must not be his! For the children of God
are his, not only by profession, but in heart, and in spirit, and
in truth! If you have been washed in the
blood of God’s Lamb, rejoice, because God now rejoices in
you! And ‘Let not thine
heart envy sinners: but be thou in the fear of the Lord all the day long.’”
Michael Smith
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“Things That Accompany Salvation”
--Hebrews 6:9--
Those who teach that a chosen, blood-bought
child of God can lose his salvation are nothing but self-righteous works
religionists. They do not know Jesus
Christ! Therefore, they do not know the
Gospel of Jesus Christ. If they did,
they would not put the Son of God “.. to an open shame” (Heb. 6:9). Not only is such sinful
Christ-denying doctrine contrary to the
clear teachings of Holy Scripture; not only does it make the perfect life of
Jesus Christ the God-man, and His sufferings, meaningless; not only does such
false doctrine call Jesus Christ, who is the truth, a liar; it portrays our
Sovereign, Omnipotent, Immutable, Triune God, who purposed the salvation of His
elect, a failure. Brethren, that sinful
doctrine is nothing but hell-deserving blasphemy. Our wonderful, merciful, Covenant God gives
His promised children “Things That Accompany Salvation”. He gives us His anointed ministers to preach
His Glorious Gospel to us. He sends the
Spirit of His Son into our heart to guide us into all truth. He gives us true saving faith by which we
embrace Jesus Christ and His Gospel. He
gives us an enlightened mind that agrees with what God’s Holy Word says about
our sinful, helpless, hopeless, hell-deserving condition. He grants us repentance unto life. He gives us persevering grace that keeps us
looking to Jesus Christ. He puts His
love in our heart. His love for us, and
our love for Him, constrains us, compels us, to live for His glory. God the Holy Spirit gives His redeemed
children eternal life, promising us that we will never perish. He gives us a true, sincere desire to
continue in the faith; a sincere desire to assemble on a regular basis where
the true Gospel of His Sovereign, Amazing Grace is preached.
Pastor
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“The idea of free-will will soon be
destroyed in the heart of him who has had any spiritual dealing with Jesus
Christ, as to the application of His merits, and the subjection to His
righteousness. Christ is every way too
magnificent a Person for poor natural men to apprehend. Christ is so infinitely
holy, nature dare not look at Him; so infinitely good, nature can never believe
Him, when it lies under full sights of sin.
Christ is too high and glorious for nature so much as to touch. There
must be a divine nature first put into the soul, to make it lay hold on Him Who
lies so infinitely beyond its sight.”
– Thomas Wilcox
