t                   oPastor John and wife Kathy  
 

 
 

Preaching God's Sovereign, Electing Grace   

RESCUE BAPTIST CHURCH


WELCOME TO RESCUE BAPTIST CHURCH 

Sunday Morning, March 18, 2018

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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

 

  “Rejoice, The Lord Is King”                                            Page 228

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SCRIPTURE READING

 

    Psalm 76

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OFFERTORY

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WORSHIP HYMN

 

  “Crown Him With Many Crowns”                                   Page 234

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SPECIAL MUSIC

 

“For those Tears I Died” 

 Duet by Cheryl Hafdell and Shirley Jukich 

 Judy Harmon, Pianist

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Message Title

 

  “Christ’s Established Kingdom”

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CLOSING HYMN

 

  “Jesus Is Lord Of All”                                                      Page 359

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Prevenient Grace — Preparatory Grace

“Thou preventest him with the blessings of goodness.”

--Psalm 21:3--

  “The Lord God precedes the entrance of Christ into the hearts of chosen, redeemed sinners with unknown, secret works of goodness.  Prevenient grace is preparatory grace.  It is that grace that prepares the chosen, redeemed sinner to receive God’s saving grace.  By prevenient grace, and then by the inward, secret work of God the Holy Spirit in the heart, God makes the heart of his chosen good soil to receive the Word sown (Matthew 13:3-9).

Sweet, indescribably sweet is that work of God’s providence and grace that precedes his grace, prepares the way for his grace, and brings his grace!  Just ask any who have experienced it.  How Bartimaeus must rejoice in his God-sent blindness that put him in the Savior’s path, who brought seeing to his eyes and light to his soul!  That woman with an issue of blood for twelve long, miserable years today gives glory and praise to the God of all grace who bowed her body that he might bow her heart.  I cannot begin to imagine the praises of that once wild, Gadarene demoniac who now walks the streets of the City of God telling how thankful he is that he once walked in darkness among the dead, possessed of devils, that he might know the liberty of light, and righteousness, and grace in Christ.  I can almost see that poor woman taken in adultery in Glory Land.  How her face must beam with gratitude, joy, love, and praise, as she worships the God of all grace who brought her to the Savior by her being taken in adultery!  See, yonder, the dying thief today with Christ in Paradise!  How he must be overwhelmed with the goodness of God that preceded the grace he experienced when he was crucified with his Redeemer on Calvary’s hill!  It was the goodness of God in prevenient grace coming before that brought him to be judged, condemned, and crucified, that he might have the Lord Jesus Christ revealed in him as they hung together upon Calvary!”

Pastor Don Fortner

“Thou art my servant; I have chosen thee” (Isaiah 41:9).

  “If we have received the grace of God in our hearts, its practical effect has been to make us God’s servants.  We may be unfaithful servants, we certainly are unprofitable ones, but yet, blessed be his name, we are his servants, wearing his livery, feeding at his table, and obeying his commands.  We were once the servants of sin, but he who made us free has now taken us into his family and taught us obedience to his will.  We do not serve our Master perfectly, but we would if we could.  As we hear God’s voice saying unto us, ‘Thou art my servant’, we can answer with David, ‘I am thy servant; thou hast loosed my bonds’.  But the Lord calls us not only his servants, but his chosen ones—‘I have chosen thee’.  We have not chosen him first, but he hath chosen us.  If we be God’s servants, we were not always so; to sovereign grace the change must be ascribed.  The eye of sovereignty singled us out, and the voice of unchanging grace declared, ‘I have loved thee with an everlasting love.’   Long ere time began or space was created God had written upon his heart the names of his elect people, had predestinated them to be conformed unto the image of his Son, and ordained them heirs of all the fulness of his love, his grace, and his glory.  What comfort is here!  Has the Lord loved us so long, and will he yet cast us away?  He knew how stiffnecked we should be; he understood that our hearts were evil, and yet he made the choice.  Ah! our Saviour is no fickle lover.  He doth not feel enchanted for awhile with some gleams of beauty from his church’s eye, and then afterwards cast her off because of her unfaithfulness.  Nay, he married her in old eternity; and it is written of Jehovah, ‘He hateth putting away.’   The eternal choice is a bond upon our gratitude and upon his faithfulness which neither can disown.”

 --C. H. Spurgeon

ANNOUNCEMENTS

  • We will come to The Lord’s Table during our worship service this evening (DV).

***** Cleaning duty this week:  Russ Davis and Roger Deaver *****

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SUGGESTED BIBLE READINGS FOR THIS WEEK

Monday                          Wednesday                     Friday

Psalm 18                         Matthew 27                     1 John 4

Psalm 19                         Matthew 28                     1 John 5

Psalm 20                         Mark 1                             2 John

Psalm 21                         Mark 2                             3 John 3

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  “The Scriptures plainly say,  ‘He that believeth on the Son of God hath eternal life.’  I plan to leave it right there--adding nothing and taking nothing away.  Jesus Christ is the all-sufficient Saviour, and he that believes on Him is not condemned.  I also add that this matter of justification by faith is the article by which a church, a minister, or a professor of Christianity stands or falls.  There is no bridge between MERIT and MERCY.   They are as far apart as the poles and never the twain shall meet.”   

Pastor Henry Mahan

                                                                                                                                               

FOOD FOR THOUGHT

  “If God, by His Divine Power, has given us ‘.. all things that pertain unto life and godliness’ (2 Peter 1:3), can there be anything lacking?  And, if God is the One who has given us all things, is there any room for boasting on our part?  In addition, if ‘.. all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose’ (Rom. 8:28), could there be anything that is not under God’s sovereign control?  Moreover, if God has highly exalted His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, and has ‘.. given all things into his hand’ (John 3:35), and has put ‘.. all things under his feet’ (Eph. 1:22), it is Jesus Christ Himself who is the Sovereign Ruler over this whole universe and everything in it.  It is Jesus Christ, the God-man, Who upholds ‘.. all things by the word of his power’ (Heb. 1:3).  Knowing this, knowing that Jesus Christ is Lord of all, knowing that nothing happens apart from His permissive will, knowing that Jesus Christ our Savior is working all things for our good, and for His glory, shouldn’t we, as His blood-bought children, ‘Do all things without murmurings and disputings’? (Phil. 2:14).”            

Pastor

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   The Lord Jesus used the wind to declare that the Holy Spirit is irresistible over man’s will in the new birth, ‘the wind bloweth where it [will]…so is everyone that is born of the Spirit’ (John 3: 8).  Those who preach that man has a free will say God would not violate man’s will to save us.  Considering these two teachers, it is wiser to trust God over depraved men.  But beyond that, which act of God in creation does not violate man’s will?  Rain, snow, hail, and drought do. The forms they come in do: hurricanes, tornadoes, floods, tsunamis.  Fact is, God violates man’s will every day.  God does as he will in heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth and none can stop his hand (Dan 4:35).  The only ones unhappy that God does so in salvation are those who want to attribute salvation to their will.  The rest rejoice that God says, ‘as the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater: So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it’ (Isaiah 55: 10-11).” 

Pastor Clay Curtis

 

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  “Power belongeth to Him who speaks it. Paul therefore says of his speech and preaching that it was ‘in demonstration of the Spirit and of power.’  And of his gospel, that is, the gospel which he knew, felt and preached; that it came ‘not in word only, but also in power, and in the Holy Spirit, and in much assurance.’  When it comes in this fashion it comes as the Word from the lips of King Jesus.  Consider the exercise and display of this power in its first movements upon the heart.  Man being dead in sin, needs an almighty power to make him alive unto God; what communion can there be between a dead soul and a living God?  Therefore, this is the first display of the power of the Word of God in the hands of the eternal Spirit, ‘You hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins.’  HOW?  By the Word, ‘Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of first fruits of his creatures.’  This is evidenced by KNOWLEDGE, ‘And this is life eternal, that they might know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent’.”

Pastor William Terry Worthan

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“Paul’s conversion was an instance of divine power, and of that alone, and so is every true conversion.  If your conversion is an instance of the preacher’s power, you need to be converted again; if your salvation is the result of your own power, it is a miserable deception, from which you may be delivered.  Every man who is saved must be operated upon by the mighty God the Holy Spirit.  Every jot and tittle of true conversion is the Spirit’s work.  As for our strength, it warreth against salvation rather than for it.  Blessed is that promise, ‘Thy people shall be willing in the day of Thy power.’  Conversion is as much a work of God’s omnipotence as the resurrection; and as the dead do not raise themselves, so neither do men convert themselves.”

--C. H. Spurgeon

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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 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

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  “He who hath Christ for his King and God, let him be assured hath the devil for his enemy, who will work much sorrow, and plague him all the days of his life.  But let this be our comfort and great glory, that we poor sinners have the Lord of life, death, and all creatures, clothed with our flesh and blood, sitting on the right hand of God, ever living and ever praying for us, who ever defends and protects us.”

--Martin Luther