t                   oPastor John and wife Kathy  
 

 
 

Preaching God's Sovereign, Electing Grace   

RESCUE BAPTIST CHURCH

September 1st, 2019

"Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths."

                    Proverbs 3:5-6

Message

Gleaning part 4

“The Glorious Gospel”

“The Bible is a book with one message and purpose. The message of the Bible is redemption by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ and its purpose is the salvation of sinners for the glory of God.

   This is the thing I want you to see: the singular purpose of Holy Scripture is to reveal the Lord Jesus Christ.  The Bible was written to show us our blessed Saviour. This fact was beautifully illustrated by our Lord himself when he came into the synagogue at Nazareth.  He opened the book of God and read to the people from the prophecy of Isaiah.  Then he closed the book, laid it down and, as the people waited to hear his sermon, he said, 'This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears' (Luke 4:18-21).  Sitting before them, God in human flesh, our Saviour said, 'I am the one of whom the prophet spoke!'

    The risen Christ met two of his disciples on the Emmaus road and walked with them.  As they talked together, he opened the Scriptures to them and caused them to understand that all the Scriptures spoke of him (Luke 24:27, 44-47).  When Philip the evangelist met the Ethiopian eunuch, the eunuch was reading from Isaiah 53.  Beginning at that place, Philip 'preached unto him Jesus' (Acts 8:35).  When Peter stood up and preached to the Gentiles at Caesarea, he said, 'To him [the Lord Jesus Christ] give all the prophets witness, that through his name whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission of sins' (Acts 10:43).

When Paul came to Thessalonica, 'As his manner was, [he] went in unto them [in the synagogue], and three sabbath days reasoned with them out of the scriptures, opening and alleging that Christ must needs have suffered, and risen again from the dead; and that Jesus, whom I preach unto you, is Christ' (Acts 17:2-3).  In the book of Hebrews, when Christ came into the world, we are told that he said, 'Lo, I come (in the volume of the book it is written of me,) to do thy will, O God' (Heb. 10:7).

   Jesus Christ and him crucified is the sum and substance of Holy Scripture.”

                    Pastor Don Fortner

For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms"

                                                                Ephesians 6:12

   “The world struggles against worldly enemies.  Each man fights against the other inhabitants of the world in order to gain an advantage in power, wealth of fame.  Worldly religionists fight worldly evil, protesting the whatever sins may be fashionable at the time and trying to gain whatever power they can in order to slow the descent of the culture or maybe even push the world in a positive direction.

 

     But, just as the believer’s hope is not in this world, so his warfare is not in this world.  When a man believes the gospel, his warfare with God is ended, but a new warfare begins.  He who would make a friend of Christ and His Kingdom will make an enemy of Satan and his kingdom.  Do not ever think that the life of faith is an easy one.  It involves warfare – fierce fighting; and to make things worse, it is a sort of warfare we are not accustomed to.  The weapons are different, the results are different, and much of the victory will not be seen by us until all fighting is over.

     But, blessed be God, the outcome of our present warfare is also different!  In times past, we battled in vain.  No matter how successful we seemed, in the end all would be lost.  But now, our eternal victory is guaranteed, as it is written, “in all these things we are more than conquerors”.  The battle will be fierce, and it may often look as though we are on the losing side.  But the reality is, everything is going exactly according to plan, and our Lord has and shall be completely victorious, and all our labors in Him shall prove fruitful to the praise of God’s glorious grace. So, encourage your hearts with grace, and fight on, for the battle is the Lord’s!”                                                         

                                                             Pastor Joe Terrell

ANNOUNCEMENTS

·       Pastor Norm & wife Nancy will be here for our special meeting on Saturday September 7th

·       Today we will take a short break, then we will come to the Lord’s Table of Remembrance, Lord willing

·       We will have our Fellowship dinner next week with Norm & Nancy Wells

FREE WILL OR SINNER'S WILL

God is the only one with a free will and He does whatsoever He pleases, so, where does that leave man? Those that come to God by their will, l find, also leave God by their will.

                                                                          Elder Bill Silva

A Strong Consolation

Hebrews 6: 17-19

   “If only one of God’s sheep were to perish, the purpose of God would be frustrated, the power of God resisted, the promise of God broken, the faithfulness of God would be a mockery and the word of God proved to be a lie.  If but one of His little ones were to be lost and sin win the day, where would be the veracity, the honor, the grace, the covenant and the oath of God? The assurance of faith is not in my ability to hold on but the immutable character of my God who loved me and gave himself for me.”

                                                          Pastor Darvin Pruitt

TRUE REPENTANCE             

 Isaiah 6:1-5

  Now that he sees his Lord truly. He sees himself honestly as well! He knows himself a sinner among sinners, in a world as lost and dead as he was! True repentance flows from his broken and contrite heart, and he therefore RUNS naturally to Christ by faith! Wild horses could’nt keep him from coming….for now HE MUST HAVE CHRIST! He has been MADE WILLING,….by the POWER of God!

              Elder Mike Loveless An excerpt of “FREEWILLARD”

CHRIST WENT GENTLY TO THE CROSS

“And the waters prevailed, and were increased greatly upon the earth; and the ark went upon the face of the waters.”

                       Genesis 7:18

  “Another reading of this passage, ‘…and the ark went [gently floating] upon the surface of the waters.’  This made me think of how gently Christ went to the cross to suffer the wrath of God for the sins of His Elect.  Christ did not fight, argue, or threaten; He went gently to the slaughter (Isaiah 53:7).  I am sure that those soldiers who nailed Him to the cross were amazed how willingly he lay down to have His hands and feet nailed to the cross.  Our Lord willingly (gently) laid down His life for us. I stand amazed.”

                     Pastor John Chapman

Joy And Peace Through Believing

  “I think that very often unbelievers sit under the preaching of the gospel, waiting and hoping for some kind of experience or feeling of peace and joy before believing the testimony of God concerning His Son

 (1 John 5:9 - 13; John 3:21 - 36, 8:24).  If you are doing this, then you have, to use an old proverb, ‘Put the cart before the horse’, and are actually looking to yourself rather than to Christ for your soul’s salvation!  Believing is the key which opens the door (Christ) through which sinners enter in ‘rejoicing’.  Thus, the great apostle to the Gentiles writes, we obtain ‘joy and peace through believing’.”

                                         Pastor Maurice Montgomery

“The life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God”

Galatians 2:20 

 “When the Lord in mercy passed by and saw us in our blood, He first of all said, ‘Live’; and this He did FIRST, because life is one of the absolutely essential things in spiritual matters, and until it be bestowed we are incapable of partaking in the things of the kingdom.  Now the life which grace confers upon the saints at the moment of their quickening is none other than the life of Christ, which, like the sap from the stem, runs into us, the branches, and establishes a living connection between our souls and Jesus.  Faith is the grace which perceives this union, having proceeded from it as its first-fruit.  It is the neck which joins the body of the church to its all-glorious Head.

“O Faith! thou bond of union with the Lord,

Is not this office thine? and thy fit name,

In the economy of gospel types,

And symbols apposite--the Church’s neck;

Identifying her in will and work

With Him ascended?”

    Faith lays hold upon the Lord Jesus with a firm and determined grasp.  She knows his excellence and worth, and no temptation can induce her to repose her trust elsewhere; and Christ Jesus is so delighted with this heavenly grace, that He never ceases to strengthen and sustain her by the loving embrace and all-sufficient support of His eternal arms.  Here, then, is established a living, sensible, and delightful union which casts forth streams of love, confidence, sympathy, complacency, and joy, whereof both the bride and bridegroom love to drink.  When the soul can evidently perceive this oneness between itself and Christ, the pulse may be felt as beating for both, and the one blood as flowing through the veins of each.  Then is the heart as near heaven as it can be on earth and is prepared for the enjoyment of the most sublime and spiritual kind of fellowship.”

                                                                      C. H. Spurgeon

September 8th, 2019

And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.

                                        Revelation 22:17

And I saw no temple therein: for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it.

                     Revelation 21:22

For us to enjoy and appreciate any book of the Bible we must have a view about God that is revealed from Scripture, a view that He is Almighty.  When He says He is Almighty, that is exactly what He means.  He isn’t almost almighty or almighty sometimes, but He is the Lord God Almighty all the time.  That is God!  In scripture, God helps us out by being redundant.  He is the Lord God Almighty. Three times He says the same thing in those three words.  He reminds us, so that we can remind ourselves, and we can remind others: He is the Lord God Almighty.

                                                        Pastor Norm Wells 

A MUST HAVE GOSPEL!

  “Those who have never heard the glorious Gospel of the free grace of God in Christ Jesus the Redeemer, need to hear that Gospel more than anything else in the world; but they, sad to say, do not feel that need.  However, those who have heard and believed that Gospel MUST hear it!  The hungry man MUST eat, the thirsty man MUST drink, and the sinner MUST feast upon the Lord Jesus Christ and His righteousness!  He knows and feels his desperate need.                                                 Pastor Maurice Montgomery

"I believe that every particle of dust that dances in the sunbeam does not move an atom more or less than God wishes, that every particle of spray that dashes against the steamboat has its orbit as well as the sun in the heavens, that the chaff from the hand of the winnower is steered as surely as the stars in their courses, that the creeping of an insect over a rosebud is as much fixed as the march of a devastating pestilence, and the fall of leaves from the poplar is as fully ordained as the tumbling avalanche.  He who believes in God must believe this truth.  There is no standing point between this and Atheism.  There is no halfway between an almighty God who works all things according to the good pleasure of His will, and no God at all!"                                                                           C. H. Spurgeon

September 15th, 2019

And when they were come into the ship, the wind ceased. They that were in the ship came and worshipped him, saying, Of a truth thou art the Son of God.

                         Matthew 14:32 & 33

Message

“One Sacrifice For Sin”

“GOD OVER ALL” OR NO GOD AT ALL!

     If there is but one little germ somewhere in this vast universe which is not under God’s dominion and control, then two things are true: (1) God is not “God over all” as the Scriptures so plainly and universally declare Him to be; (2) My life, health, and well-being is merely a matter of chance.  I cannot honestly thank God for life and health, nor can He honestly ask for nor receive thanks from me.

     If there is but one demon somewhere out there in this vast universe which is not under God’s sovereign dominion and control, then my soul is in deep trouble; and if I am ever finally saved at all, it will be merely a matter of chance.  I have no power against demons, and if just one of them is active outside the sphere of God’s dominion and control, then the “Sure mercies of David” are not so sure after all. 

     The only sure hope for any real sinner is an absolutely sovereign Lord and Savior.  There, and there only can a poor, weak, sinful soul confidently rest in peace.  The great apostle to the Gentiles said, “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” (II Tim. 1:12).  The great God and Savior of His people can and shall keep His saints because HE is indeed “GOD OVER ALL.”  Believe on HIM and thou SHALT be saved!

                                                           Maurice Montgomery

CHRIST IS ALL

And have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him: Where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, Barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free: but Christ is all, and in all (Col. 3:1-11).

 “Truly, ‘Christ is All!’  And if Christ is ours, we have all in him.  All who get the Son of God get everything with the Son! ‘He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?’ (Rom. 8:32).  Our God has given us a word for that in the Bible.  The word is ‘Grace’!”

                                                        Pastor Don Fortner

September 22nd, 2019

O send out thy light and thy truth: let them lead me; let them bring me unto thy holy hill, and to thy tabernacles.

Then will I go unto the altar of God, unto God my exceeding joy: yea, upon the harp will I praise thee, O God my God.

Psalm 43:3 & 4

Message Title

“One Mind, One Gospel”

DID NOT OUR HEARTS BURN WITHIN US?

LUKE 24:32

  “Dear reader! These words pertain to all of Gods elect. Does not your heart burn when Christ our Lord opens the Scriptures to you? Does it not bring joy to your heart to see Christ Jesus, the God-man, in Scripture?  Does not your heart burn with joy when you see in Scripture the Lord’s mercy expressed for his chosen, blood bought children?  Does not your heart burn when you see in the Scriptures the peace God’s people have in his sovereign, loving Grace?  The hearts of those two men on the road to Emmaus burned when Christ the Lord expounded in the Scriptures all things concerning himself. OH, HOW I PRAY THAT THE LORD JESUS WOULD GIVE YOU A HEART THAT BURNS WITH JOY, SPENDING TIME IN THE HOLY WORD OF GOD.   

                                                              Pastor John Reeves

The Spirit of Truth

John 14: 15-18

  “The Spirit of Truth is not some emotional stirring within that gives evidence of the Comforter, but of the sweet assurance of the mind and heart that is sealed up in a hopeful embracing of the Lord Jesus Christ. (Ephesians 1: 13).  His presence is known by His convicting, converting power that reproves us of sin, righteousness, and judgment.  What is needed to fill an empty soul and sooth an irritated conscience is the covenant promises of God in Christ.   The seeking sinner does not need to speak in an unknown tongue.  He needs God to speak to him the unknown gospel of his sovereign grace.  This world is divided into two categories by the Apostle Paul: Jews and Greeks.  The Jews are the traditional religionists and the Greeks are the philosophical wise of the world.  Of these two he says in

 I Corinthians 1: 22-24 “The Jews require a sign and the Greeks seek after wisdom:  But we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumbling block, and unto the Greeks foolishness; but unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.”  The Spirit of God is the Spirit of Truth and by the Truth He comforts the hearts of all his true disciples.”

                                                                Pastor Darvin Pruitt

September 29, 2019

O continue thy lovingkindness unto them that know thee; and thy righteousness to the upright in heart.

Psalms 36:10 

It is not the absence of sin but the grieving over it which distinguishes the child of God from empty professors.                                                              A. W. Pink

There is one true evidence of a work of grace, and regeneration in men and women: Love. That one who truly believes, who is born of God, loves God who begat him, and loves all those begotten of Him. “Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and

every- one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. He who loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love”

(I John 4:7-8).    

           Darvin Pruitt

“FOR WITH THEE IS THE FOUNTAIN OF LIFE”

Psalm 36:9

     One Wednesday night, before I preached to a handful of Christ-interested sinners, I thought to myself, “If someone was here tonight who claimed and advertised to have found the fountain of youth, some potion that would give eternal youth and life to those who drank it, there would be no empty seats and folks would be lined up for miles to hear and find out where this fountain of life eternal could be found and drank from.”

     I have found such a “Fountain,” and every time we meet together I labor to point thirsty sinners to that “Water of Life, from which they may freely drink and never thirst again.” (John 4:13) Sadly, few seem to be interested in this “Fountain of Life” and the Almighty One Who possesses it. I can only assume that they are not thirsty. Nevertheless, “Let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.” Revelation 22:17                    

                                                       Pastor David Eddmenson


 

 

 
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