t                   oPastor John and wife Kathy  
 

 
 

Preaching God's Sovereign, Electing Grace   

 

RESCUE BAPTIST CHURCH

October 4,2020

1 Peter 2:9-10

But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light: Which in time past were not a people, but are now the people of God: which had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy.

 

SCHEDULED MEETINGS 

Sunday Morning Bible Study           10:00 AM  Believe God, Mike Loveless

Sunday Morning Worship                 11:00 AM

Friday Night Bible Study                      7:30 PM
  

OPENING HYMN                                                    PAGE 521

REDEEMED

 
SCRIPTURE READING

PSALMS 50

 
WORSHIP HYMN                                                      PAGE 358

I AM THINE, O LORD

 
DEVONAL

 
MESSAGE

 Doeth Thou Believe 

CLOSING HYMN                                                       PAGE 202

AMAZING GRACE

 

SUGGESTED SCRIPTURE READING FOR THE WEEK

Sunday Heb 8-10     Monday Num 33-36     Tuesday 2Chr 16-20

Wednesday Ps 119     Thursday Prov 29-30

                     Friday Micah                     Saturday Acts 5-6
 

Stick with the King James Version

  “I am often asked, ‘Which translation of the Bible do you recommend?’ My response is always the same, ‘Stick with the King James Version. God has given us his Word in our language; and you will not find a better English translation than the King James.’

    Isn’t it strange that people are always seeking a ‘more readable’, ‘more understandable’, ‘more modern’ translation of the Bible?  I have no idea how many translations have been published in the last forty years, each claiming to be an ‘improvement’. Yet, not one has been easier to read, more understandable, or offered an improvement.

    The problem is not that people do not understand the language of the Bible.  The problem is that they do; and they don’t like it. So preachers and religious leaders have done their best to come up with a translation of the Bible that makes God look weak and man look good, a translation that makes redemption accomplished look like redemption attempted, and makes God’s operations of grace appear to be God’s offers of grace.  Sinners do not need a new translation.  They need the new birth.”              Pastor Don Fortner

 “A popular concept among religious people in our day is ‘the unconditional love of God.’  We are told that God loves men unconditionally, just the way they are.  Nothing could be farther from the truth!  God would cease to be God if He loved any sinner just the way they are.  God is holy!  ‘He is of too pure eyes to behold iniquity.’  ‘The Lord trieth the righteous; but the wicked and him that loveth violence His soul hateth.’ God's love is in Christ! It is conditioned upon one being in Christ!  Outside of Christ there is nothing but His wrath against sin.  This concept dishonors Christ!
    There is also no security in this view of unconditional love. If He loves the sinner unconditionally, He can cease to love him unconditionally!  But because His love is in Christ, it can never end!  ‘For I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, no depth, nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord’ (Rom. 8:38-39).”                                                                                                 

                                                                                     Pastor Todd Nibert

The Significance of the Pool (John 5: 1-9)

    “Some say the pool at Bethesda was a superstitious pool and had no virtue in its water.  Others say that it was blessed of God by the presence of an angel who troubled its water and gave healing virtue to the first to plunge into the pool.

    I personally see this pool as a picture of both.  But the real significance of Bethesda’s pool is the sovereign King of Glory who graced it with His presence.  The only reason for it to be preserved or mentioned at all; the only value to it or virtue it could claim is that of the Lord Jesus Christ. Before He appeared or after his appearance, he is still the source of its virtue and the magic of its water.

    I thought as I studied these passages how much this applies to all that we are and do.

1. As your pastor: I have no reason to be honored, listened to, obeyed, or followed except for Christ.  If Christ be in me and in my ministry and in my life then this office has honor but without Him it is just another hollow form of religion.

2. The building we meet in: There is nothing special about this building or the grounds.  But if this place is used to honor God’s King, He will also honor this place.  If Christ be here, I had rather meet here than in the greatest cathedral in the world.

3. This assembly: Of what value is a crowd if Christ is not in their midst?  A huge multitude gathered on the outskirts of Canaan without Christ and accomplished nothing except to bring down the wrath of God on their heads.

4. Worship: Who will bring us to the Father?  Who will take our pitiful gifts and make them acceptable?  Who will show us the Father that we might know him and be stirred to worship?

5. Reading the scriptures: “To Him give all the prophets witness”, Take Christ out of the Bible and it is just another book.

6. Preaching: Oh, what a pitiful exercise would preaching be if it were not for Christ.  What could you say to perishing sinners?  What comfort could you give to the suffering?  What hope could you offer to the lost?

    The real significance of the pool is that which God has attached to everything that is – The Lord Jesus Christ. “All thing were created by Him and for Him” (Colossians 1: 16).”               

                                                                                Pastor Darvin Pruit

ANNOUNCEMENTS

·       Join us for our FELLOWSHIP DINNER concluding this morning service.

·       We will come to THE LORD’S TABLE during our afternoon worship service, Lord willing
 

Can any finite human being decide who our parents will be?  Can we decide when and where we will be born; whether we will be male or female; what nationality we will be; what color our eyes and hair will be?  Anyone who has the mental ability to reason knows that the answer to those questions is an emphatic NO!  Why, then, do self-righteous religionists think their decision has earned them the right to enter heaven’s glory?  They’re unreasonable sinners, dead in trespasses and sins, THAT’S WHY!  Spiritual truths are nothing but foolishness to them (1 Cor. 2:14).  The perfect redeeming blood of Jesus Christ that cleanses His people from all their sins means absolutely NOTHING to them.  Jesus Christ seated on His sovereign throne of power is blatantly denied!  They have no love for the truth that they might be saved.  THEREFORE, God sends them a strong delusion that they should believe a lie: that they all might be damned who believe not the truth but have pleasure in unrighteousness (2 Thess. 2:11 - 12)                                                         

                                                                                             Gene Harmon

 
“Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost” (Titus 3:5).   

“I recently had someone ask me if I trusted in works.  My first reaction was to say God forbid!  But I answered this way.  Yes, I trust in works.  But they are not my works.  I trust in the work of the Lord Jesus Christ.  I trust in him and what he did for sinners like me.  He did for me what I couldn't do for myself.  He worked out a perfect righteousness for me.  I trust Him and his work alone for all my salvation. His works are now my works.”

                                                           Pastor David Eddmenson

“God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth” (John 4:24).

"For the love of Christ Constraineth Us"

--II Corinthians 5:14-15—

  “All ministers of Christ and all believers in the Lord Jesus are under the strongest and most compelling constraint to do what they do and live as they live.  They are motivated by ‘THE LOVE OF CHRIST’ - His love for them and their love for Him!  It is not the fear of hell, nor a desire for special rewards, nor to establish a righteousness that they engage in worship, works of faith, and labors of love.  It is Christ's eternal love, which led Him to redeem them by His life and death, and the love of God for Christ and His church and kingdom which is shed abroad in their hearts by the Holy Spirit.  ‘All the law is fulfilled in one word– LOVE GOD AND LOVE ONE ANOTHER’ (Gal. 5:14).  It is unreasonable to suggest that an unworthy sinner, loved with an everlasting love, chosen in Christ, redeemed by His blood, and called with a holy, heavenly calling, would disregard the commandments of His Lord and live a selfish, self-centered, and worldly life! ‘For the love of Christ constraineth us...that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto Him which died for them and rose again’ .”

                                                                                Pastor Henry Mahan

 
When, EXACTLY Did God Save Me?

  “WHEN did the Lord first begin to deal with my soul? WHEN, exactly, did I first begin to believe?  WHEN did I actually become a Christian?  A child of God?  I gave up trying to answer those questions a long time ago, as being totally unimportant.  George Whitefield once said, ‘I have heard of a person who was in a company with fourteen ministers of the gospel, some of whom were very eminent servants of Christ, yet not one of them could tell the time when God first manifested himself to his soul.’   It is quite sufficient to me that, by the grace of God, I do believe in the Christ of Scripture.  And as a believing sinner I continue to pray for grace to continue to believe in Christ. (Heb. 10:38,39).”

                                                                Pastor Maurice Montgomery

 

“Give unto the Lord the glory due unto his name.”

--Psalm 29:2—

    “God's glory is the result of his nature and acts.   He is glorious in his character, for there is such a store of everything that is holy, and good, and lovely in God, that he must be glorious.  The actions which flow from his character are also glorious; but while he intends that they should manifest to his creatures his goodness, and mercy, and justice, he is equally concerned that the glory associated with them should be given only to himself.  Nor is there aught in ourselves in which we may glory; for who maketh us to differ from another?  And what have we that we did not receive from the God of all grace?  Then how careful ought we to be to walk humbly before the Lord!  The moment we glorify ourselves, since there is room for one glory only in the universe, we set ourselves up as rivals to the Most High. Shall the insect of an hour glorify itself against the sun which warmed it into life?  Shall the potsherd exalt itself above the man who fashioned it upon the wheel? Shall the dust of the desert strive with the whirlwind?  Or the drops of the ocean struggle with the tempest?  Give unto the Lord, all ye righteous, give unto the Lord glory and strength; give unto him the honour that is due unto his name.  Yet it is, perhaps, one of the hardest struggles of the Christian life to learn this sentence--‘Not unto us, not unto us, but unto thy name be glory.’  It is a lesson which God is ever teaching us, and teaching us sometimes by most painful discipline. Let a Christian begin to boast, ‘I can do all things’, without adding ‘through Christ which strengtheneth me’, and before long he will have to groan, ‘I can do nothing’, and bemoan himself in the dust.  When we do anything for the Lord, and he is pleased to accept of our doings, let us lay our crown at his feet, and exclaim, ‘Not I, but the grace of God which was with me’!”

--C. H. Spurgeon

“The gospel of God’s grace in Christ Jesus is not a thing to be proved, but truth to be believed.  It is not submitted to our reasoning powers as a subject for critical examination.  The gospel is a message from God, addressed to the conscience, feelings, and affections.  For this reason, men fond of arguing and proving everything by strictly logical deduction generally make very poor preachers.  In the Scriptures, God does not argue.  He proclaims!”                                        

                                                                                                    J. C. Philpot

October 11,2020

Hebrews 12:2 

Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. 

 

SCHEDULED MEETINGS

Sunday Morning Bible Study           10:00 AM Simon Peter an Apsotle of Christ (pt75) 

Sunday Morning Worship                 11:00 AM

Friday Night Bible Study                     7:30 PM

 

OPENING HYMN                                                   PAGE 97

ALL HAIL THE POWER OF JESUS NAME

 
SCRIPTURE READING

PSALMS 51

 
WORSHIP HYMN                                                   PAGE 188

AT THE CROSS

 
DEVOTIONAL

 
MESSAGE

 Light That Shineth 

 
CLOSING HYMN                                                     PAGE 175

HALLELUJAH WHAT A SAVIOR

 

SUGGESTED SCRIPTURE READING FOR THE WEEK

Sunday Heb 11-13        Monday Deut 1-3     Tuesday 2Chr 21-24

Wednesday Ps 120-121           Thursday Prov 31

Friday Nahum               Saturday Acts 7-8

 

Only those who have experienced the days before modern technology know the difference between lighting candles and kerosene lamps, or flipping a switch to light up a room; the difference between taking a bath in a metal tub in water that older siblings have already bathed in, or the luxury of taking a hot shower every day; the difference between using the bathroom in the house, or walking out back to a stinking little out-house.  

   In like manner, only those who have experienced the miracle of the new birth know the difference between spiritual truths and false religious works.  God must send the Spirit of Jesus Christ into our hearts before we can understand and believe His glorious gospel truths (1 Cor. 2:12).  Then, and not until then, do we know that sin is not just what we do but what we are.  Then, and not until then, do we see our need of a Savior.  Then, and not until then, do we see through the eye of God-given faith that Jesus Christ was sent to this sin-cursed earth from God the Father to save His chosen people from their sins.  Then, and not until then, do we believe that God has forgiven us for Christ’s sake.  Then, and not until then, do we see the risen, exalted, Christ of God on His Sovereign Throne of glory who was raised again for our justification.  Then, and not until then, will we believe that our risen Lord and Savior is working all things after the counsel of His own will for our eternal good and His eternal glory.  Until then, gospel truths will be nothing but foolishness to us (1 Cor. 2:14).

   Brethren, only those who have experienced the miracle of the new birth, the miracle that only God can perform, worship Jesus Christ, the true and living God, in Spirit and in truth.  All other religious folks are an abomination to the God of all grace, who chose a particular people in Christ before the foundation of the world.  He sent His Darling Son to this sin-cursed earth to redeem all of His promised children with His own precious blood.  All of them shall receive the gift of true saving faith and come to the Lord Jesus Christ by that same faith, giving Him all the praise and all the glory for His unspeakable gift.  

                                                                                     Gene Harmon

 

 OCTOBER 18, 2020 

ISAIAH 17:10 12

Because thou hast forgotten the God of thy salvation, and hast not been mindful of the rock of thy strength, therefore shalt thou plant pleasant plants, and shalt set it with strange slips: In the day shalt thou make thy plant to grow, and in the morning shalt thou make thy seed to flourish: but the harvest shall be a heap in the day of grief and of desperate sorrow. Woe to the multitude of many people, which make a noise like the noise of the seas; and to the rushing of nations, that make a rushing like the rushing of mighty waters!

 

SCHEDULED MEETINGS

       Sunday Morning Bible Study       10:00 AM Simon Peter an Apostle of Christ 

       Sunday Morning Worship             11:00 AM

       Friday Night Bible Study                 7:30 PM

 

OPENING HYMN                                                  PAGE 355

TRUSTING JESUS

 
SCRIPTURE READING

PSALMS 52

 
WORSHIP HYMN                                                  PAGE 195

NOTHING BUT THE BLOOD

 
DEVOTIONAL

 
MESSAGE

CLOSING HYMN                                                    PAGE 201

GRACE GREATER THEN OUR SIN

SUGGESTED SCRIPTURE READING FOR THE WEEK

Sunday James 1-3     Monday Deu 4-6     Tuesday 2 Chr 25-28

      Wednesday Ps 122-124           Thursday Eccl 1-2

       Friday Habakkuk                       Saturday Acts 9-10
 

 “The most difficult thing for any of us to do is to TOTALLY and COMPLETELY trust and rest in our blessed Lord Jesus to redeem us, sanctify us, and make us accepted of the Father.  We are so prone to self-righteousness and works that we have a constant battle trying to remember that ‘man at his BEST STATE is altogether vanity’, and in his WEAKEST MOMENTS is no less loved and accepted if he is in Christ. As Bro. Fortner said, ‘My relationship with the eternal God (in Christ) does in great measure determine what I do.  But what I do (good or bad) in no way determines my relationship with the eternal God.”  Actually, ‘In my flesh dwelleth NO GOOD THING.’  ‘In the flesh no man can please God’.  It is in Christ that the Father is well-pleased; and only in Christ can He love, accept, and be pleased with me.  I did not come to Christ on the basis of my works, nor am I kept in Christ on the basis of my works!  I looked to Him THEN for ALL THINGS, and I look to Him NOW for ALL THINGS!  Any look within will serve only to discourage and depress me; but looking to Christ, the author and finisher of my faith, will only encourage me, for He never changes.  His gift of life and calling to grace is without change.  The command, ’Look unto Me and be ye saved’, is not only the hope and strength of the seeking sinner, but it is the constant hope and strength of the believing sinner.  I know my sins, but I rejoice in His grace.  I know my weakness, but I rest in His strength.  I know my emptiness, but I am complete in Him.  ’O what peace we often forfeit, O what needless pain we bear’, all because we do not cast our sins, our souls on Christ and LEAVE THEM THERE!”

                                                                                   Pastor Henry Mahan

 
“The Word of God declares that ‘every man at his best state is altogether vanity’ (Psalm 39:5).  The Scriptures also teach that ‘Christ is all’ (Col. 3:11).   We may paraphrase what David and Paul stated in these passages by saying that man is nothing and Christ is everything.  Those who would proclaim that man is more than nothing, who say, ‘He is something’, must therefore cease to say that Christ is everything.  For to the degree you make man to be more than nothing, to that exact degree you make Christ to be less than everything. And man cannot be something if Christ is everything.  But if Christ is everything, and He is, man must therefore be nothing, and he is.”                                                                                                                              Pastor Jim Byrd

SUNDAY OCTOBER 25, 2020

2Ti 1:12 - 13

For the which cause I also suffer these things: nevertheless I am not ashamed: for I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day. Hold fast the form of sound words, which thou hast heard of me, in faith and love which is in Christ Jesus. 

 

SCHEDULED MEETINGS

     Sunday Morning Bible Study        10:00 AM Simon Peter an Apostle of Christ (pt 76)

     Sunday Morning Worship              11:00 AM

     Friday Night Bible Study                 7:30 PM
 

OPENING HYMN                                                     PAGE 103

BLESSED BE THE NAME

 

SCRIPTURE READING
PSALMS 53

 
WORSHIP HYMN                                                     PAGE 496

HE HIDETH MY SOUL

 
SPECIAL MUSIC

Mike Loveless

 
MESSAGE

 

CLOSING HYMN                                                       PAGE 220

HE LIVES

 

SUGGESTED SCRIPTURE READING FOR THE WEEK

Sunday James 4-5     Monday Deut 7-9     Tuesday 2 Chr 29-32

     Wednesday Ps 125-127           Thursday Eccl 3-4

     Friday Zephaniah                      Saturday Acts 11-12


JESUS BEHOLDING HIM, LOVED HIM

Mark 10:21

     Was the rich young ruler that came to Christ saved? Before I answer, may I ask you a question? Does the Lord save those that He loves? You better believe He does. Yes, I know that the Lord told that young man, “There is one thing that you lack, go your way, sell all that you have and give it to the poor, and you shalt have treasure in heaven.” Yes, I know that the Lord said to this zealous ruler, “Come, take up the cross, and follow me.” Yes, I know that moral young man was sad at that saying and went away grieved; for he had great possessions. But I am telling you, that young man was saved. I know that he went away sad that day, but there came another day that He rejoiced in his redemption in Christ. How do I know? I know because God has never loved anyone that He did not save. And God has never saved anyone that He did not love.

     Isn’t that what election is? It is God’s love and salvation going hand in hand. God foreknew us and predetermined us to be His, because he loved us, but He loved us in Christ. God called us, because He loved us and chose us, but He loved and chose us in Christ. (Ephesians 1:4) God saved us, because He loves, chooses, calls, and justifies us, but it’s all in Christ. (Ephesians 1:3) And because of His love for Christ, God’s elect will one day soon be glorified. (Romans 8:29-30) If I am a child of God, when God beholds His Son and loves Him, He beholds me and loves me just the same. If God beholds and loves me in Christ, He will always behold me and love me, because His love for His Son and me is eternal.      

                                                                          Pastor David Eddmenson

 For some of you, this is a time of great darkness; but in the gospel there is light for the present, yes, joy even for this moment in which you seem to be driven almost to despair.  When I preach about the water of life so freely given by God, I mean just this – that all you need between here and heaven, Christ is ready to give you.  All that your soul can possibly require to enable you to stand in the presence of God without fear and dwell in the bosom of God forever, made perfectly like Christ by His grace – all that is in the gospel for you; and we are bidden to invite you to partake of it in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord.                                                     

                                                                                           Bruce Crabtree