WELCOME TO RESCUE BAPTIST CHURCH

Sunday Morning, November 1, 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 Almighty King”                                        Page 267

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SCRIPTURE READING

     Psalm 119:17 - 32

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OFFERTORY

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WORSHIP HYMN

   “Heaven Came Down”                                                     Page 495

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SPECIAL MUSIC

     To be announced.      

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Message Title

   “The Ministry of God the Holy Spirit”

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CLOSING HYMN

   “I Am His, and He Is Mine”                                            Page 490

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‘He will reprove the world of sin’
--John 16:8--  

   “When God the Holy Spirit comes to a man’s heart in saving power and grace, this is the first thing he does: he reproves, convinces and convicts the sinner that he is a sinner, deserving eternal damnation. Where there is no conviction by the Holy Spirit of sin, there is no saving faith in Christ. The Spirit of God so thoroughly convinces a man of his sinfulness that he gladly takes his place with the publican and cries, ‘God be merciful to me; I am the sinner.'

     He convinces us of the fact of sin. We have sinned against God. In our father Adam we rebelled against God, we were born with hearts of rebellion and sin and we have chosen the path of rebellion against God. We are all sinners by nature, sinners at heart, sinners by choice and sinners by deed.

     The Holy Spirit convinces us of the fault of sin. Our sin is much more than an act of evil against man. Sin is an affront to God. It is an attack upon the throne of God. It is a denial of God’s right to be God. Sin is a monstrous attempt to rape God, to rob him of his dignity and glory as God. ‘Against thee, thee only have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight.’

     In conviction, the Holy Spirit convinces us of the folly of sin. It is the most foolish thing in the world that a man should sin against God. Sin is utter madness. What fool will dare to stand against the Almighty?

     God the Holy Spirit convinces us of the filth of sin. He shows us that sin has made us loathsome and obnoxious in the sight of God. It has rendered both me and all that I do unacceptable to a holy God.

     The Spirit of God convinces us of the fountain of sin. Sin arises from our own evil hearts. Sin is not so much what we do as it is what we are. Because man’s heart is a fountain of evil, it brings forth nothing but corruption, vileness and sin.

     And the Holy Spirit convinces us of our sin. ‘The wages of sin is death. ‘ The just reward of my sin is eternal damnation. But, blessed be God, he also convinces us of the forgiveness of sin in Christ.” 

“Grace For Today” by Don Fortner (Excerpt)

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"NOT MINE" and "NOT LOVED" --Romans 9:25--

   ‘As he says in Hosea: “I will call them ‘my people’ who are not my people; and I will call her 'my loved one' who is not my loved one,"–Romans 9:25  

     It is written in the book of Hosea that Hosea's wife, Gomer, bore him a son. Afterward, it is written that Gomer bore two more children. These two children were evidently not Hosea's, so they were named, "Not Mine" and "Not Loved." Life for these children must have been difficult. Every time they were called on, they were reminded of their illegitimacy and the fact that they had no right to live in Hosea's house. Their only hope of a happy life and an inheritance was Hosea's grace. They could not obligate Hosea to show them any good. But, if Hosea wanted to do them good, he could: He could sovereignly call them "Mine", and sovereignly choose to love those who had no claim on his love.

     What a beautiful picture of God's sovereign grace! By nature we are "Not Mine" and "Not Loved." Rather than children of God, we are children of wrath. We have no claim on God or His love. We have no home or inheritance. But in sovereign love and mercy, God has called us "Mine" and "Beloved."

     I imagine that those children had a special love for Hosea as he took them as his own. And you can imagine how loved they felt when, in public, someone would call them by their old names, and Hosea would step forward and say, "No, let me introduce you to "Mine" and "Loved." And how blessed it is for us when law, conscience and Satan step up to call us by our old names only to hear God say through the gospel, "No, these are 'Mine,' and 'Loved.' In the very next verse Paul quotes, "It will happen that in the very place where it was said to them, 'You are not my people,' they will be called 'sons of the living God.'" Freewillers and legalists can have their "gospels". I rejoice in free and sovereign grace!”

Pastor Joe Terrell

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ANNOUNCEMENTS

Our annual Church Family Thanksgiving Dinner is scheduled for this afternoon following this morning’s worship service. A warm welcome is extended to all our visitors.

During our afternoon worship service, following our fellowship dinner, 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 for this week: Gene & Judy Harmon   *****

 We extend our sincere condolences to Cindy Nation, and members of her family, over the recent death of Cindy’s husband, Bob. Funeral services will be held at Chapel of the Pines Mortuary in Placerville, commencing at 1:00 PM this next Friday, November 6.

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FOOD FOR THOUGHT 

   “The gospel, my dear sir, is a salvation appointed for those who are ready to perish, and is not designed to put them in a way to save themselves by their own works. It speaks to us as condemned already, and calls upon us to believe in a crucified Saviour, that we may receive redemption through His blood, even the forgiveness of our sins. And the Spirit of God, by the Gospel, first convinces us of unbelief, sin, and misery; and then, by revealing the things of Jesus to our minds, enables us, as helpless sinners, to come to Christ, to receive Him, to behold Him, or, in other words, to believe in Him, and expect pardon, life and grace from Him; renouncing every hope and aim in which we once rested, ‘And accounting all things loss and dung for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ’.” 

--John Newton

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“Whereof the Holy Ghost also is a witness to us: for after that he had said before, This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, saith the Lord, I will put my laws into their hearts, and in their minds will I write them; And their sins and iniquities will I remember no more. Now where remission of these is, there is no more offering for sin (”Hebrews 10:15-18).

   “Let the Reader particularly notice, how blessedly God the Holy Ghost is introduced in this passage, as a witness to the truth of it. What a proof to his Being, Person, Godhead, and Ministry? Who but a Person can be a witness? And who less than God can witness to his own Covenant? Oh! the folly, as well as ingratitude of such men, who reject the counsel of God against their own souls! And let not the Reader, at the same time, overlook the blessed truth, to which God the Holy Ghost bears witness. The Covenant of grace, in the pardoning of sins, is made everlastingly secure in the blood of Christ. Christ hath redeemed his Church from the curse of the law, being made a curse for her, Gal. 3:13. And, where that redemption is, it is full, finished; and complete. There is no more offering for sin. The sin of the Church is done away by Christ. How then shall there be any more offering for what doth not exist? And to this the Holy Ghost himself is the witness. Precious truth, and precious witness, to the regenerated child of God! (Jer. 1:19; Rom. 8:1).”

--Robert Hawker

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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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   “If we’re not in Christ when we go through that door marked “death”, we’ll die in our sins and go out into eternal torment. But if we’re in Christ Jesus, “There is therefore now no condemnation”. RIGHT NOW! We have received a FULL PARDON from God Himself because of the perfect redeeming work of His Darling Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, who paid the ransom price in full for all of His chosen people. “In Christ Jesus” is the only hope for any of us hell-deserving sinners. What God-honoring joy to know that we were “chosen in Christ” by our Heavenly Father before this world was created (Eph. 1:3 - 4). We were in Christ when He came into this world. We were in Christ when He perfectly obeyed God’s laws for us. We were in Christ when He suffered the wrath of God as our Substitute, dying in our room and stead. We were in Christ when He was buried, when He arose from the dead, and when He ascended into heaven, having obtained eternal redemption for us. God the Holy Spirit placed us in the body of Christ when He raised us from a state of spiritual deadness, giving us faith to believe the Gospel. And absolutely nothing can separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus. What joy, what peace, in knowing that we are ‘In Christ Jesus’. ‘O to grace, how great a debtor, daily I’m constrained to be’.”   

Pastor

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   “As much as we desire to see men and women come to a knowledge of the living God in Christ Jesus our Lord, as much as we long for them to embrace the gospel and receive Christ as Lord and Savior, we dare not, cannot, and will not labor to present that glorious gospel in such a way that THE OFFENSE IS REMOVED! When I prepare a message to preach on the Lord’s day, my thoughts are not, ‘How can this be said or that be preached to give the least offense, to hold those who visit, to slowly slip up on the ignorant, or to present the truth of God in small quantities.’ My thoughts are ONLY on this one thing, ‘What does the Scripture teach? What is the Lord saying?’ My responsibility is to preach Christ and His word. What my congregation thinks, how men and women react, or the results of the sermon are not my affair -- but HIS! I will preach the grace of God in love, but I will preach THE GRACE OF GOD! I will preach sovereign, effectual redemption with humility and compassion, but not with apologies and timidity. ‘We were BOLD in our God to speak unto you the GOSPEL OF GOD with much contention’ (1 Thess. 2:2).”                                    

Pastor Henry Mahan