WELCOME TO RESCUE BAPTIST CHURCH
Bulletin, June 7, 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
“Come, thou Fount of Every
Blessing” Page 2
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SCRIPTURE READING
Psalm
102
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OFFERTORY
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WORSHIP HYMN
“Grace Greater than Our Sin” Page
201
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SPECIAL MUSIC
To be announced.
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Message Title
“The Throne
of Grace”
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CLOSING HYMN
“Wonderful Grace of Jesus”
Page 198
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“Let Us” (Hebrews
4:1 - 16)
“Hebrews
four is a chapter about faith, the blessed rest of faith in the Lord
Jesus Christ. Yet, it is a chapter filled with exhortations and admonitions,
giving us very clear instructions about our responsibilities. Faith in Christ is not a passive,
indifferent, or dormant thing. It a
vital, living principle of grace.
When I was in
college, my professor of homiletics and pastoral theology used to tell us something
every preacher ought to always bear in mind.
He repeated it almost every time he talked to us about sermon
preparation and preaching. He said, ‘Men, where there is no summons there is no sermon.’ In
other words, every sermon preached ought to call for action, not physical
action, but moral, spiritual action. If
a sermon does not call for those who hear it to make some kind of response to
it, it is not much of a sermon. The same
is true of written expositions.
Four times in these sixteen verses we are
given two words of admonition. Four times the writer admonishes us, with
himself, to do something. Look at them
with me.
1.Something to Fear. Here is something
for us to fear. "Let us therefore fear, lest, a promise being left
us of entering into his rest, any of you should seem to come short of it” (Heb. 4:1). We ought to fear
missing Christ. Christ is the ‘one thing needful.’ We must have him. If we
have him, we have all. If we miss him, we miss all. We must be washed in his blood, robed in his
righteousness, born of his Spirit, saved by his grace, united to him by faith.
2.Something to Do Look at Heb.
4:11. Here is something for us
to do. ‘Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man
fall after the same example of unbelief.’ Let us labor that we may cease from all labor. Faith is ceasing
from our works. To trust Christ is to
quit trying to find acceptance with God by something we do. It is to rely upon him alone for
righteousness, finding complete and perfect justification, sanctification, and
redemption in him.
3. Something to Hold. Here is something for us to hold. ‘Seeing then that we have a great high
priest, that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast
our profession’ (Heb. 4:14). This we must hold with a death grip, for
life and death are the issues, eternal life and eternal death. Whatever we do, we must hold Christ.
4.Somewhere to Go. Here is somewhere
for us to go. ‘Let us therefore
come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace
to help in time of need.’ In
every time of need, at all times, come to God your Father, who sits upon the
throne of grace, come through the merits of Christ your Savior, the merits of
his blood and righteousness, and get the mercy and grace you need by the power
of his Spirit.”
Excerpt from
Pastor Don Fortner’s book: Discovering
Christ In Hebrews
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The Throne of
Grace (Hebrews 4:16)
WHAT IS THE THRONE OF GRACE? It is a place where God Almighty sits as the
Sovereign Monarch over this whole universe, bestowing His Sovereign Grace on
His chosen, blood-bought children as it pleases Him.
WHERE IS THE THRONE OF GRACE? In Heaven’s Glory, where the risen Christ
of God sits at the right hand of the Majesty on High as the Glorified
God-man. The Blessed Redeemer of His
chosen people enables God to be just, and the Justifier of those who believe in
Jesus Christ and His Gospel. The perfect
redeeming work of Jesus Christ is the very reason God bestows His grace on
those sinners for whom Christ laid down His life. Grace reigns because Jesus Christ
reigns. The throne of grace is
also the new heart of every believer, which is Christ in us, the hope of
glory. Because Jesus Christ
reigns, His grace reigns in all of His enlightened children.
WHY IS IT CALLED THE THRONE OF GRACE? To draw our attention to God’s unmerited favor He is pleased to
bestow on His chosen people through the
merits of Christ alone. The salvation of
God’s elect was purposed by God before this world was created for the glory of
Jesus Christ, and the glory of His grace.
WHO ARE ALLOWED TO APPROACH THE THRONE
OF GRACE? Not self-righteous works
religionists. Not those who are trusting
in their free will, in their decision for Jesus. Their foolish, sinful, religious beliefs
absolutely destroys the meaning of the word “GRACE”. Only those who believe that Jesus Christ by
Himself purged the sins of His chosen people; only those who believe that Jesus
Christ, by the sacrifice of Himself, obtained eternal redemption for them; only
those who believe that Jesus Christ is the risen, exalted, glorified God-man
who is seated on His Sovereign Throne in heaven AS LORD OF ALL
can approach The Throne of Grace. The
“US” who are bidden to come boldly unto the throne of grace
are those very people who believe God!
WHY DO GOD’S CHILDREN COME TO THE THRONE
OF GRACE? To give our Majestic
Triune God ALL THE GLORY for His unspeakable gift. And to obtain mercy, and find grace to
help in time of need. Is there
ever a moment in the life of a believer, can we take any step on our pilgrimage
journey through this life, when we don’t need
God’s mercy and grace? OH! how
thankful we should be that God has provided
a Throne of Grace we can come to.
Pastor
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ANNOUNCEMENTS
Our monthly Fellowship
Dinner is scheduled for this afternoon, following this morning’s
worship service. Please join us.
Following our
fellowship dinner, we will have an afternoon worship service. During that service we will come to The
Lord’s Table.
Our worship
service for this evening has been cancelled.
Our monthly Music
& Testimony Night is scheduled for next Sunday evening.
****** Cleaning duty this week: Gene and Judy Harmon ******
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SUGGESTED
BIBLE READINGS FOR THIS WEEK
Monday Wednesday Friday
Malachi
2 Job 34 Revelation 17
Malachi
3 Job 35 Revelation 18
Malachi
4 Job 36 Revelation 19
Romans
8 Romans 9 Romans 10
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FOOD FOR THOUGHT
Our Refuge
"The Lord is my rock, and my fortress and my deliverer; my
God is my rock, in whom I take refuge. He is my shield, and the horn of my salvation—my
stronghold." Psalm 18:2
“On every side are hosts of enemies
ever invading our souls—trampling down every good thing in our
hearts—accompanied by a flying troop of temptations, doubts, fears, guilt and
bondage sweeping over our soul. And we,
as regards our own strength, are helpless against them. But there is a refuge set before us in the
gospel of the grace of God. The Lord
Jesus Christ, as King in Zion, is there held up before our eyes—as the Rock of
our refuge—our strong Tower—our impregnable Fortress—and we are encouraged by
every precious promise and every gospel invitation when we are overrun and
distressed by these wandering, ravaging, plundering tribes—to flee unto and
find a safe refuge in Him.
Keep me safe, O God,
for in You I take refuge. O Lord my God, I take refuge in You—save and deliver
me from all who pursue me.”
--J. C. Philpot
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WHAT SAITH THE SCRIPTURES
“And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of
man's wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power.”
--1 Corinthians 2:4--
“Have you ever
considered how our lord rebuked the devil by declaring, “as it is written”? In Matthew chapter 4, His
rebuke is clearly referring to the Old Testament writings. We as men of God may stand before the people,
declaring, and preaching, and bringing out certain points, but nothing is more
powerful than “What Saith The Scriptures”.
You can not misunderstand Eph 2:1 through 2:9. “And you hath he quickened, who were dead in
trespasses and sins; Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of
this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that
now worketh in the children of disobedience : Among whom also we all had our
conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of
the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as
others. But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved
us, Even when we were dead in sins, hath
quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;) And hath raised us up together, and made us
sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus: That in the ages to come he might shew the
exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ
Jesus. For by grace are ye saved through
faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast.” There is more power in these few verses
than any man could ever come up with from his own imagination! May God be pleased to keep us aware, as we
preach, or teach, or witness to those whom he brings across our paths, that the
power lays within his word! Not ours! WHAT
SAITH THE SCRIPTURE!”
John Reeves
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*
“He that is of God heareth God’s words” (John 8:47).
It isn’t just hearing the
Gospel that makes the difference. Those unbelieving Jews heard the audible
sound of our Lord’s voice. It’s hearing the Gospel, and it being made effectual
by the power of Jesus Christ our Lord.. “He
that is of God” are those the Gospel comes to, not in word only, but
also in power (1 Thess. 1:4 - 5).
Pastor
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NO LIFE BY LAW
“It is not a lawful use of the law to seek
justification and acceptance with God by our obedience to it; because it is not
appointed for this end, or capable of answering it in our circumstances. The very attempt is a daring impeachment of
the wisdom and goodness of God; for if righteousness could come by the
law, then Christ has died in vain (Gal. 2:21, 3:21); so that such a
hope is not only groundless, but sinful; and when persisted in under the light
of the Gospel, is no less than a willful rejection of the grace of God.”
-- John Newton
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“And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your
flesh, hath he quickened together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses”
(Colossians 2:13).
“God raised Christ from
the dead, and God must raise us from the dead.
We were dead in trespasses and sins (Eph. 2:1 - 8). Forgiveness of sin is not done piecemeal, but
is done at once and includes all sin - past, present and future (1 John
1:7).
When we savingly
believe in Christ, we are at that moment united to Christ. All that Christ did, suffered, or procured as
our Head (whether in his life, death, burial, resurrection, or exaltation) is
imputed to us by God, even to the right to all these benefits, given to us as
if we had been personally present with him at those times and had done them all
ourselves (Eph. 1:3; 2:6).
Excerpt from
Pastor Henry Mahan’s Bible Class
Commentary (Col. 2:13)
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* * *
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“Now then, there
is but one thing with which Almighty God is satisfied - entirely satisfied -
and that is THE PERSON AND WORK OF HIS SON! It is with Christ that we must be satisfied,
not with ourselves, nor anything about us!
When we cease from ALL our labors, and ALL our
righteousness, and ENTER INTO HIS REST, pardon and peace will come
without delay.”
--Horatius Bonar
