t                   oPastor John and wife Kathy  
 

 
 

Preaching God's Sovereign, Electing Grace   

RESCUE BAPTIST CHURCH

October 6th, 2019

And let the beauty of the LORD our God be upon us: and establish thou the work of our hands upon us; yea, the work of our hands establish thou it.

                                                  Psalms 90:17

Message Title

Purchased Possession

“And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.” (Revelation 21:2)

   The new Jerusalem.  ‘The holy city, new Jerusalem’, is not a literal walled city.  It is the church of the living God in its complete, perfect state.  John describes the new Jerusalem (God’s glorified church) more fully later.  For now he simply tells us three things about it.

    The church of God is ‘the holy city, new Jerusalem’.  It is called ‘new’ to distinguish it from the earthly Jerusalem, the symbolical Old Testament centre of worship.  It is ‘holy’ because it has been purged and cleansed of all sin by the blood of Christ and the power of his grace.  It is evident from the Scriptures that ‘the holy city, new Jerusalem’ is the whole church of God’s elect (Ps. 48:1 - 2; Isa. 26:1 - 2; 40:9; Gal. 4:26; Heb. 12:22 - 24).  It is called a ‘city’ because a city is a place of permanent residence, made up of a great number of people, and a place of security and safety.  This ‘holy city’ will be our home, the place of our family and of our most intimate fellowship (Heb. 11:6).

    This ‘holy city’ comes down from God out of heaven.  When Christ comes again to the earth all the saints of God will come with him into his new creation (Dan. 7:13 - 14, 18; Jude 14).

    The church of God is ‘prepared as a bride adorned for her husband’.  This describes the church in her eternal glorified state, beautified with all the perfection of holiness, in perfect conformity to the Lord Jesus Christ.  This was the object of God the Father in election (Eph. 1:4; Rom. 8:29 - 30), the goal of God the Son in redemption (Eph. 5:25 - 27) and the objective of God the Holy Spirit in regeneration (Eph. 1:13 - 14).  This great, glorious event will be the final, climatic result of Christ’s work as our Saviour and surety (Heb. 2:13).

“Discovering Christ in Revelation”

by Pastor Don Fortner (Excerpt)

“FEAR NOT”

(Isaiah 41:10 - 14)

  “Three times in the above verses God says to His people, ‘Fear not’.  Each time that He tells us not to fear, He also says ‘I will help thee’.  In Psalm 89:19 we read: ‘I have laid help upon one that is mighty; I have exalted one chosen out of the people’.

    This one that is mighty and yet chosen out of the people can only be the Lord Jesus Christ.  He is the mighty God, and yet He is man.  The great mystery of godliness is God manifest in the flesh (I Tim. 3:16).  He is the only one that God has laid help upon for sinners.  He paid the debt of those who trust in Him, who by nature are bankrupt with nothing to pay.  Our debt was one of obedience as well as satisfaction and He paid it all.  Consider the words of the hymn writer, Isaac Watts,

‘Till God in human flesh I see,

My thoughts no comfort find:

The holy, just, and sacred Three

Are terrors to my mind.

But if Immanuel’s face appear

My hope, my joy begins,

His name forbids my slavish fear,

His grace removes my sins.’

                    Pastor David Pledger

“Sinners do not become servants of the Lord by studying how to be good servants. Sinners become faithful servants by knowing and studying the Master.”                                 

                                                                  Pastor Chris Cunningham

 “I am so glad the apostle Paul by Divine inspiration wrote, ‘Christ is all and in all.’ For though I am self-righteous, proud, and altogether vanity, by the grace and mercy of God, Jesus Christ is made unto me all I need to stand perfectly holy and righteous before the Divine Justice of God.”

                                 Pastor David Eddmenson

“How great is our God whose hand paints every flower and shapes every leaf; who forms every bud on every tree and every infant in the womb; who feeds each crawling worm with a parent’s care and every insect that sleeps in the bosom of a flower; who opens the golden gates of day and draws the dusky curtains of the night; who measures every drop of rain, the whirling flakes of snow, and the sands of man’s earthly life; who determines alike the fall of the sparrow and the fate of a kingdom; who so overrules the tide of human fortune that, whatever befalls a man, come joy or sorrow, the believer readily declares, ‘It us the Lord: let Him do what seemeth Him good’.”

                                                                                Thomas Guthrie

THE COVENANT OF WORKS OR THE COVENANT OF GRACE: Which Do You Desire to Be Under?

                                                                                Genesis 2:16-17

  “The covenant of works was between God and man. God said, ‘Adam, of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat:’ Yet God puts conditions in and on the covenant of works. ‘But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: (there was a condition and consequence for disobedience) for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.’

    The covenant of grace is unconditional. In the covenant of grace I never have to worry about whether I have done enough. In the covenant of grace, I never have to worry about whether I have done good enough. Why? Because it is about what Jesus Christ has done for the chosen sinner.  It certainly was enough and it certainly was good enough. It was perfect! He is the only One who could satisfy God’s Holy justice and justify me.  Why would anyone desire to be under the covenant of works?”

Pastor David Eddmenson

“YE ARE COMPLETE IN HIM” (Colossians 2:10)

  “The believers standing in Christ does not fluctuate with his feelings, not even the increase or decrease of his faith or understanding or anything else.  He stands complete in Christ. God would never trust any of His children to stand before him at anytime in their own selves - that is, in their merits or certain good frames of mind.  He knows our frame.  He remembers that we are yet dust.  Therefore, He has on purpose provided for them this perfect standing in Christ Jesus.  ‘Ye are complete in Him’, the Holy Ghost said.  He says in another place, ‘Ye are perfect in Christ Jesus’, (Col. 1:28.)  The very nature of our God requires us to be perfect and complete before Him at all times.  He, out of necessity, therefore provided all this for His children: a perfection, a completeness, which can never be diminished.  It is as unchanging as God himself, (Heb. 6:17; 13:8).  Every true believer may walk through this world in perfect liberty, free from anything and everything - yes, even his sin, fear of condemnation, and all else that would cause him to doubt of his completeness. He may freely come to God, worship Him, call Him ‘Father’, and this he may do at all times with the utmost confidence and thankfulness, because in Christ he stands, first and foremost and always, complete before God.  O thanks be to God for Jesus Christ.”                                                       

                                                Pastor Bruce Crabtree

"The Righteous Shall Hold His Way"

Job 17:9

  “The believer may not always travel with equal SPEED. This scripture does not say he will hold his PACE, but he will hold his WAY.  He may not always travel with equal ENTHUSIASM.  It does not say that he will hold his zeal and zest, but he will hold his WAY.  He may not travel with equal SUCCESS and SPIRITUAL GROWTH, but he will hold his WAY . The scriptures do not teach that a person will reach eternal glory even if he leaves the way of faith and love.  The true believer will continue in repentance, in faith, in worship, and in love for the Redeemer and His people.  Paul summed up what I am saying: ‘Now the just shall live by faith, but if any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him. But we are not of them who draw back unto perdition; but of them that believe to the saving of the soul’ (Hebrews 10:38-39).”

                                                         --Copied (Author unknown)

“To bring in everlasting righteousness”

(Daniel 9.24)

  “Consider this single accomplishment of the Lord Jesus and you will find a sufficient cause for rest in your hearts, compelling motivation for praise in your heart, and a firm foundation for the hope of life everlasting.

    How hard we have tried, and how useless our efforts have been in creating and maintaining our own righteousness. Truly, our flesh, like all other flesh, is as the grass and flower of the field: no sooner do we manufacture something that looks like righteousness than the winds blow upon it and it withers and dies. What a wearisome task to maintain even the appearance of righteousness, much less the reality of it.  But of the several things that were included in the Lord’s triumphant cry, ‘It is finished’, this is the foundation: He has done for eternity what we cannot do for a moment: brought in righteousness.  We can rest, for all that is required of us by God has been done for us by the Son of God.”

                                                                                Pastor Joe Terrell

“He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him” (John 3:36)

  “To be without Christ is to be without anything of value. To be without Christ is to be an unpardoned condemned sinner.  The day will come when that person without Christ will be cast into Hell.  To be without Christ is to be sick with a disease that is killing you, with no remedy.  Sin will be your ruin, because you have no Saviour.  You will soon die without Christ.  You will go into eternity with no one to lean on.  None will comfort you.  To die is to live again, either in eternal life or eternal death.  But without Christ there is none that will say to the storm, ‘Peace, be still’ ”      Pastor Milton Howard                                                           

BEST FRIEND

    “The Best Friend you can have on this earth is one who will tell you the truth.  One who will not help make you comfortable in a refuge of lies.  One who speaks the truth to you in love.  One who will continue to do so though you may not appreciate his doing so.  May I be such a friend that the blood of others be not on my hands.”

                                                                              Pastor Donnie Bell

October 13, 2019

As every man hath received the gift, even so minister the same one to another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God.

If any man speak, let him speak as the oracles of God; if any man minister, let him do it as of the ability which God giveth: that God in all things may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom be praise and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.

                         Psalms 4:10-11

CHRIST’S GIFT (Ephesians 4:11-12)

  “Hearing the Word of God preached is so important that our risen Savior has specifically given the ministry of the gospel to his church as one of his chief ascension gifts (Ephesians 4:11-12; Psalms 68:18-19).

    God has always gifted specific, chosen men for the work of the ministry, men he has specifically called to this great work to serve the souls of men.  Jude tells us, that ‘Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied (or preached) concerning the Lord’s coming with ten thousand of his saints to judgment.’  Peter tells us that Noah was ‘a preacher of righteousness’, the righteousness of God.  God never left himself without witness, even in those earliest times, but at sundry times and after in diverse ways, spoke to our fathers by the prophets.

     After the giving of the law, the Lord God constantly separated to himself a certain order of men to pray for, preach to, and serve his people; to lead, guide, and rule his people by his Word.  Israel always had her prophets and her priests.  Though the Jews were often carried away into captivity, and because of their sins scattered abroad among the nations, yet God faithfully and graciously kept up a remnant of prophets and preachers, like Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, and others, to reprove, instruct, and call his elect to repentance.

     Great as those days were, we live in a better day with better provisions.   Many talk about the old days and old preachers as if the men called, gifted, and sent of God to his church today are somewhat deficient.  That is not the case.  We have the complete Revelation of God in Holy Scripture.  God’s church today benefits from more than 2000 years of gospel preaching.  In our day, in spite of the rampant heresies of this apostate religious age, we are blessed of God with the clearest, fullest preaching of the gospel this world has ever known.

     When our Lord Jesus Christ, our great High Priest, had through the eternal Spirit offered himself as a full, perfect, sufficient, effectual sacrifice and satisfaction for the sins of his people, and after his resurrection had all power committed to him both in heaven and earth, gave commission to his Apostles, and in them to all succeeding gospel preachers, to ‘go into all the world and preach his Gospel to every creature’, promising to ‘be with us, (to guide, assist, strengthen, and comfort us always, even) unto the end of the world.’

     As it is the responsibility of God’s servants everywhere to preach the gospel (1 Corinthians 9:16), it is your responsibility to hear the message God sends his servant to deliver.  But most people utterly despise God’s gift.  They do despite to the Spirit of grace, crucify the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame by willfully refusing to attend God’s ordained means of grace.  How terrible the end of such people will be!  They despise the heavenly manna of the gospel, counting it a worthless thing.  Our Savior declares that it will be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon, for Sodom and Gomorrah, than for those who despise the gospel.  Better that men had never heard of a Savior being born, than after they have heard, not to give heed to the ministry of those who are employed as God’s ambassadors to declare the good news of his free, saving grace in Christ.”                    

                                         Pastor Don Fortner

October 20, 2019

Hearing of thy love and faith, which thou hast toward the Lord Jesus, and toward all saints; That the communication of thy faith may become effectual by the acknowledging of every good thing which is in you in Christ Jesus. For we have great joy and consolation in thy love, because the bowels of the saints are refreshed by thee, brother.

Philemon 1:5-7

“FROM SUCH WITHDRAW THYSELF”

(1 Timothy 6:3 - 5)

  “The gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ produces a humble and loving spirit; but religion without Christ (even though quite orthodox) fills the mind with pride, vanity, and self-esteem.  These people often spend their time in controversy, disputes, and strife over words, ordinances. laws, church discipline, and government.  Their ministry and contact with others produce quarrels and dissension, insults and suspicion, envy and jealousy.  ‘From such withdraw thyself.’  The true grace of God holds and proclaims the gospel of His glory in the spirit of our Lord and will bring His people together in righteousness, joy, and peace.”                                      Pastor Henry Mahan

“REMEMBER, SINNER, it is not THY HOLD of Christ that saves thee--it is Christ; it is not THY JOY in Christ that saves thee--it is Christ; it is NOT EVEN FAITH in Christ (though that is the instrument)--it is Christ’s blood and merits; therefore, look not to the hope, but to Christ, the source of thy hope; look not to thy faith, but to Christ, the author and finisher of thy faith. ..”          

                                                                         C. H. Spurgeon

LET US NOT BE DISCOURAGED
  “We preach the gospel of God’s sovereign, free grace in Christ Jesus the Lord; that salvation is in Christ alone, by grace alone, through faith alone, according to the word alone.  For the most part, the message is rejected, but do not be discouraged, it has ever been so!  Elijah thought he was the only one left who believed God; Isaiah wrote, ‘Who hath believed our report and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed?’  When the Lord Himself preached in His hometown of Nazareth, the people marveled at His gracious words when He spoke of the blessings, but when He spoke of sovereign mercy, they tried to kill Him!  The Apostle Paul was accused of being a pestilent fellow, a mover of sedition, the ringleader of a sect and was imprisoned for preaching the gospel.  But remember, it is written: “The word of God is not bound’, ‘My word shall not fail’ and ‘This is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you’.”                                         

                                                            Pastor Charles Pennington

October 27, 2019

This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief. Howbeit for this cause I obtained mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might shew forth all longsuffering, for a pattern to them which should hereafter believe on him to life everlasting.

1Ti 1:15 & 16

NOT ALL HOPE IS HOPE

“They were confounded because they had hoped; they came thither, and were ashamed”

             (Job 6:20)

  “There will be many who will be confounded when they stand before the Lord and hear Him say; ‘Depart from me, I never knew you.’  Many hope to go to heaven and to miss hell.  They hope in their morality, their faith, and their works; they hope in everything under heaven, but never in the one seated at Gods’ right hand. Jesus Christ is all the hope that God the Father has given to sinners.  The only hope that any sinner has in salvation is Christ himself; if I have Him, I have all that God demands.  O sinner, make sure that Jesus Christ is the sum and substance of all your hope; if so, all is well. (1Timothy 1:1)”

                                                                         Pastor John Chapman

The Difference Between the Dove and the Raven

  “Why did the dove return to the ark and the raven never return? Because the raven could live off the dead, decaying animals drowned in the flood.  But the dove could not.  It had to return to the ark for its food. The raven represents the religious man who does not know Christ.  He is satisfied with the dead, rotting works of the flesh.  But the true believer must return to Christ his ark for food.  The mark of a true believer is that he is continually coming to Christ for the same thing!  Mercy and grace!  He cannot be satisfied with anything less.”

                                                                           Pastor Todd Nibert

“One of the main objectives of the ministry of the gospel is to convince sinners of their sin and misery without Christ.  Men will not come to Christ Jesus until they are so convinced.  ‘They that are whole [well] need not a physician.’  If you love your soul, seriously meditate upon this fact and do not allow pride to rob you of the TROUBLING but pleasant, realization that YOU ARE A SINNER!  ‘Christ is the friend of sinners’.”

                                                                       Pastor Henry Mahan