t                   oPastor John and wife Kathy  
 

 
 

Preaching God's Sovereign, Electing Grace   

RESCUE BAPTIST CHURCH

March 3, 2019

My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father's hand. I and my Father are one.

                                                                                             John 10:27-30

                                                                                       Message 

                                                                                 “My Shepherd”

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ; According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him ...”

                                                        Ephesians 1:3 – 4

   “Many times when I have spoken to someone about the electing grace of God, the response has been, ‘I believe in WHOSOEVER WILL.’  I suppose that such a response is meant to imply that these two Bible teachings are mutually exclusive of one another or perhaps even diametrically opposed.  Everyone who preaches the electing love of God believe that THE ELECT WILLINGLY COME TO CHRIST!  The fact is that not only do I believe WHOSOEVER WILL, I know WHO they are.  Our Lord said, ‘ALL that the Father giveth to me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out’ (John 6:37).  Our Lord said, ‘It is written in the prophets, And they shall all be taught of God. Every man therefore that hath heard, and learned of the Father, cometh unto me’ (John 6:45).  Our Lord said, ‘My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me’ (John 10:27).  The heavenly Father said to His beloved Son, ‘Thy people shall be willing in the day of Thy power’ (Psalm 110:3).  Who will come to Christ?  Those who have been given to Christ, taught of the Father, and made willing in the day of our Lord’s power.  They are His sheep!”                                                                                                                                                                                             Pastor Tim James

“For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus” (I Timothy 2:5).

   “I must approach unto God by Christ Jesus because I am unholy. God must approach unto me by Christ Jesus because HE IS HOLY. In Christ Jesus, I, a poor sinner, and God, a Holy and Heavenly Father, have an honest and sincere communion one with another. His holiness is not violated and my sin is not imputed but all is washed away. Oh, sweet fellowship! Oh, holy union! Oh, easy walk! Oh, joyous friendship! Oh, happy me! (I John 1:7).

                                                            Pastor Bruce Crabtree    

                                                                      “They shall not depart from me.”

                                                                                --Jeremiah 32:40--

   “Are you one of the Lord’s sheep?  Are you a true believer?  Have you heard the Savior’s voice calling you to himself?  Has he given you eternal life?  Do you follow him in true faith?  If so, you are one of his chosen, redeemed, saved sheep.  You have eternal life.  And you will never perish.  There are many things to give us comfort and confidence regarding the security of our salvation in Christ.  The purpose of God secures the salvation of all his elect.  He said, ‘I will be their God, and they shall be my people.’  If one of the chosen number could be lost, God’s eternal purpose would be overturned.  The promise of God demands our security in Christ.  He said, ‘I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.’  The blood of Christ requires the eternal salvation of all his redeemed ones.  He said, ‘I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.  I am the Good Shepherd: the Good Shepherd giveth his life for the sheep.’  But if even one of those sheep for which he died, which he purchased with his own blood, perishes at last, then his blood would be shed in vain and that cannot be!  The satisfaction of Christ demands that all his people be preserved unto eternal glory.  If one of those for whom he suffered and died were to perish at last, he could not be satisfied.  His cross would be discovered a miscarriage.  But that cannot be.  It is written, ‘He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied.’  The work of the Holy Spirit secures the everlasting preservation of every true believer.  We are ‘sealed (or preserved) with that Holy Spirit of promise, which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory.’

     This is our assurance and security in Christ.  We do not in any way trust in ourselves.  But we do trust the Lord our God.  The faithfulness of God, the blood of Christ, the intercession of Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit assure us that none of Christ’s sheep will ever perish.”

                                    Pastor Don Fortner

                                                                     ANNOUNCEMENTS

                                                  This afternoon we’ll have fellowship dinner
                             During our worship service this afternoon, we will come to the Lord’s Table
                                                March 10th will Spring Forward our clocks


                                                                FOOD FOR THOUGHT

   “We don’t preach health, wealth, and spiritual prosperity for the world.  We preach trials, tribulations, chastisement, affliction, and sufferings for the spiritually called.”

                                                            Brother Mike Goettina 

   “Of old, God complained to Israel, ‘Thou thoughtest that I was altogether as thyself’ (Psalm 50:21).  Such must NOW be his indictment against an apostate Christendom.  Men imagine that the Most High is moved by sentiment, rather than actuated by principle.  They suppose that His omnipotency is such an idle fiction that Satan is thwarting His designs on every side.  They think that if He has formed a plan or purpose at all, then it must be like ours, constantly subject to change.  They declare that whatever power He possesses must be restricted, lest he invade the citadel of man’s ‘free will’ and reduce him to a ‘machine’.  They lower the all-efficacious Atonement, which has redeemed everyone for whom it was made, to a mere ‘remedy’, which sin-sick souls may use if they feel disposed to; and they enervate the invincible work of the Holy Spirit to an ‘offer’ of the gospel.”

                                                              A.W. Pink


   “Eternal life is to know the living God and Jesus Christ whom He has sent.  It is to have the LIFE of Christ, the PRESENCE of Christ, the SPIRIT and MIND of Christ, and the very GLORY of Christ begotten, created, and formed in us.  CHRIST IN YOU is the hope of glory.  Until the miracle of grace is performed, our religion is but a form of godliness.”

                                       Pastor Henry Mahan

“All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned everyone to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all” (Isaiah 53:6).

   “Here is a confession of sin common to all the elect people of God.  They have all fallen, and therefore, in common chorus, they all say, from the first who entered heaven to the last who shall enter there, ‘All we like sheep have gone astray.’  The confession, while thus unanimous, is also special and particular: ‘We have turned everyone to his own way.’  There is a peculiar sinfulness about every one of the individuals; all are sinful, but each one with some special aggravation not found in his fellow.  It is the mark of genuine repentance that while it naturally associates itself with other penitents, it also takes up a position of loneliness.  ‘We have turned everyone to his own way’, is a confession that each man had sinned against light peculiar to himself, or sinned with an aggravation which he could not perceive in others. This confession is unreserved; there is not a word to detract from its force, nor a syllable by way of excuse.  The confession is a giving up of all pleas of self-righteousness.  It is the declaration of men who are consciously guilty—guilty with aggravations, guilty without excuse: they stand with their weapons of rebellion broken in pieces, and cry, ‘All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned everyone to his own way.’  Yet we hear no dolorous wailings attending this confession of sin; for the next sentence makes it almost a song.  ‘The Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.’  It is the most grievous sentence of the three, but it overflows with comfort.  Strange is it that where misery was concentrated mercy reigned; where sorrow reached her climax weary souls find rest.  The Saviour bruised is the healing of bruised hearts.  See how the lowliest penitence gives place to assured confidence through simply gazing at Christ on the cross!”

                                                                                         C. H. Spurgeon

“I believe men will argue about the new nature up until the time that they have one, and then they will just be grateful to the God of all grace, who makes all things new.”

                                               Pastor Chris Cunningham

   “As you have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, as poor, needy, naked, perishing sinners, when ye were first called by Him, and came unto Him; so walk ye in Him, with just the same sight and sense of your own misery, wants, and need of Him: and constantly abiding in Him.  So will you derive from Him fresh power to strengthen you, fresh grace to animate you, fresh peace to refresh you, fresh love to rejoice you, and fresh influence to sanctify you. 

Thus you will grow up unto Him in all things, who is your head, even Christ (Ephesians 4:15). 

Thus you see, brethren, your heavenly calling is unto Christ, to consider Christ, to live upon Him, and to grow up into Him. 

This is, to turn from all sin and self-righteousness, to go out of nature and self, to quit all confidence in what you are of yourself, what you feel in yourself, what you ever have done, or can do, towards justifying and saving yourself - to grow out of conceit with your whole self, and to rejoice, yea, always to rejoice, in Christ Jesus, ‘and to have no confidence in the flesh’ (Philippians 3:3).”

                                                             --William Mason

“Our Father has determined that Christ shall be all and in all and we nothing.  To accomplish this, experimentally, He plunges us in the ditch, turns us upside down, and undoes our doings.  This is difficult; and while it is going on, we think it must be for our destruction; but in truth it is for our salvation and His glory!  There can be no drinking of the living waters while we have a price in our hand, be it little or much.  There can be no ‘triumphing in the Lord our righteousness’ while we are hunting for shreds of our own goodness and sewing them together.  If we be anything, have anything, or can do anything, the Lord Jesus is not EVERYTHING; and if He be not everything to us, He is nothing at all.”

                                                                  Milford Hall Sr.

                                            March 10, 2019

Praise ye the LORD. Sing unto the LORD a new song, and his praise in the congregation of saints. Let Israel rejoice in him that made him: let the children of Zion be joyful in their King.                                                                                                                                                                       Psalm 149:1-2

Message Title

“A New Song”

ANNOUNCEMENTS

Our condolences to Katie and her family for the loss of her Father.
 

FOOD FOR THOUGHT

This old adage is so true: “You can’t choose your relatives, but you can choose your friends.”  But here’s a Biblical truth worth pondering: You can’t choose your brothers and sisters in Christ either.  God had done that for us,  Before time began, He chose every member of our church family in His Beloved Son, Jesus Christ our Saviour (Ephesians 1:3 - 4).  But we can choose to show kindness to one another, which our Lord Jesus admonishes every one of us to do (Ephesians 4:32).
 

Without Truth

   “Without truth there is no regeneration; for it is by ‘the word of truth’ that we are begotten and born again (James 1:18; 1 Pet. 1:23). Without truth there is no justification; for we are justified by faith, which faith consists in crediting God's truth, and so, gives peace with God (Rom. 4:20-24; 5:1).  Without the truth there is no sanctification; for the Lord himself says, ‘Sanctify them through your truth: your word is truth.’   And without the truth there is no salvation; for ‘God has chosen us to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth’ (2 Thess. 2:13).  And as the truth is the instrumental cause of all these blessings, the divinely appointed means whereby they become manifested mercies, so truth enters into and is received by all the graces of the Spirit as they come forth into living exercise.  Thus, without the truth, there is no faith; for the work of faith is to believe the truth.  What is all the difference between faith and delusion?  That faith believes God's truth, and delusion credits Satan's lies. ‘And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie, that they all might be damned who believe not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness’ (2 Thess. 2:11 - 12).”   

                                                                   J. C. Philpot

March 17, 2019

Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations. 

                                     Jerimiah 1:5

Message Title

“ SET APART   ”

GOD IS EVERYWHERE

     God is everywhere by his power, upholding, maintaining, sustaining all things, and performing with his own hands the works of his eternal purpose in all places. God is everywhere by his providence, taking care of and governing all his creatures, executing in all places at the same time his everlasting decrees. God is everywhere by his omniscience, beholding all things, all places, all events, all people, even the secrets of the hearts of all men at one time (Psalm 139:1-6). — “The eyes of the Lord are in every place, beholding the evil and the good.” (Proverbs 15:3).                                                                                                                                                                                               Don Fortner

I WILL LOVE THEM FREELY

     There are five words found in Hosea chapter 14, verse 4 that I rest my soul upon. “I will love them freely.” There is not one thing found in me that would commend God’s love to me, for if there were, His love would not be free. Equally evident is the blessed truth that there is nothing in me that would hinder God’s love, mercy and grace to me. Why? Because God promises, “I will love them freely.” How does God remain just and at the same time love and justify chosen sinners? Only in the substitution and death of His beloved Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.  In Christ God loves me freely!                                                                                                                                                                                       David Eddmenson

  “Be still, and know that I am God…” (Psalm 46:10) If God is not in control of everything, then God is not God. Whatever has come your way, it is God who sent it to you. He has already ordained the outcome of it. If you are His child, it will only bring good. Just be still and trust Him.                                                    Gabe Stalnaker

March 24, 2019

For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one. And there are three that bear witness in earth, the Spirit, and the water, and the blood: and these three agree in one.

                                          1 John 5:7-8

Message Title

“These THREE ARE ONE”

ANNOUNCEMENTS

Friday Night Bible Study is canceled

“Behold I and the children which God hath given me”

·        --Hebrews 2:13--

“The word “Behold” is used in the Holy Scriptures to arouse our attention.  As John Gill stated, “.. the saints are children with respect to God, who has adopted them, and with respect to Christ, who is their everlasting Father; that they were given to Christ as His spiritual seed and offspring, as His portion, and to be His care and charge;  is worthy of attention and calls for admiration, that Christ and His people are one, and that He is not ashamed to own them before God and men.”  The Apostle John said, “Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God. ...” (1 John 3:1).  We, God’s enlightened children, who are sinners by birth, sinners by nature; sinners by choice, and sinners by practice, are “Children of the Most High God”!  Oh! how we should BEHOLD the wonders of God’s Sovereign, Amazing Grace and Mercy He freely bestows on His children who were given to Jesus Christ in the Eternal Covenant of Grace.

We are Children of the Most High God because of a DIVINE PROMISE.  God our Father promised us to Jesus Christ His Darling Son, conditional upon the perfect obedience of Christ the God-man when He came to this earth to do His Father’s will.

We are Children of the Most High God because of a DIVINE PAYMENT.  Jesus Christ our Savior paid the ransom price in full for all our sins when He purchased us with His own precious blood.

We are Children of the Most High God because of God’s DIVINE POWER.  We were helplessly and hopelessly lost in a state of spiritual deadness.  “But God, who is rich n mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickend us together with Christ (by grace ye are saved)” (Eph.2:4 - 5).  “It is the Spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth NOTHNING” (John 6:63).

BEHOLD!  BEHOLD!  BEHOLD!  Behold Jesus Christ and the children which God hath given Him, and be filled with perpetual awe, wonder and praise to Him who has chosen us to be Children of the Most High God!”                  

                                                                                                                                                Gene Harmon

March 31, 2019

13 Therefore speak I to them in parables: because they seeing see not; and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand. 14 And in them is fulfilled the prophecy of Esaias, which saith, By hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand; and seeing ye shall see, and shall not perceive:         Matthew 13:13 & 14

Message Title

“Blessed Are Your Ears”

ANNOUNCEMENTS

Next Sunday is our Fellowship Dinner

In our afternoon service following our fellowship dinner we will come to the Lord’s Table.  

“GOD’S OBLIGATIONS?”

By Mike Loveless

  The very idea that God is obligated to anyone or anything is utterly absurd! God does however obligate Himself! Yet God, who cannot lie, has promised, and therefore pledged himself to that which he has both planned and purposed! He is LORD! As he purposed, (promised) so does He!

 Even the word “planned” does not fit Him rightly! He is not like us! We make plans (that often fail) but God rules and reigns Supremely over all things. He speaks AND IT STANDS FAST! (Psalm 50:21) “thou thougthest that I was altogether such an one as thyself:”

HE LAID DOWN HIS LIFE FOR THE SHEEP:

    The Lord’s elect are His Sheep! These elect are those that were “chosen in Him (Christ) from the foundation of the world”. Before the world began! (Eph. 1:3,4) Before there ever was a Garden, or Eden, or Adam, or Eve!

(John 10:15) “I lay down my life for the sheep”

(Rev. 13:8) “The Lamb slain from the foundation of the world”

ALL THOSE GIVEN TO HIM:

    God the Father chose a people in God the Son and entrusted them to the Lord Jesus Christ in a covenant older than the word itself. God the Holy Spirit promised to quicken them (giving them new Spiritual life) under the preaching of the TRUTH…The Gospel of their salvation. (Eph. 1:13) This is that “election of grace”! (Romans 11:5), “The everlasting covenant”. (Heb. 13:20)(John 5:37) “All that the Father giveth me shall com to me: and him that cometh to me I will in now wise cast out”

Because Christ died for THEM! Them alone! His sheep who are the elect of God, HIS PEOPLE! Chosen in Christ! The son of Jacob! He didn’t have to die for any! But He determined TO HAVE MERCHY ON MANY!