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Sovereign Grace Missionary Baptist
Church "Where the truths of
God’s word are taught" |
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You Were Asked To Pray For: |
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A Thought For The Week: ARE YOU A CHRISTIAN? There is no doubt in my mind that the majority of
you when first seeing this question, immediately answered yes. Here is
another question; "what does a Christian believe"? They all believe
the same fundamental truths don't they, "They shall all be taught of
God" (John 6:44-45)? There is one book (the Bible), One God, One Savior,
One Way, One Faith, so Christians agree on ALL these blessed truths. 1. The Scriptures are the inerrant, infallible,
verbally inspired word of God. Not only are they words about God, they are
the very words of God. They are His means of revealing Himself and His will
to mankind (II Tim. 3:16). 2. God is Absolutely Sovereign! He works all
things after the counsel of His own will. He actually rules over this world
and the affairs of those in it. He does exactly as He pleases and when He
pleases. He is Sovereign in creation – in salvation – and in providence (Eph.
1:11, Dan. 4:35, Rom. 9:15-16)! 3. Man is dead in trespasses and sins. He is
spiritually dead towards God and toward Holy things and his carnal mind is
enmity against God. Man, in his dead estate, has no right or claim on God. He
has neither the power nor the will to come to God. He loves darkness rather
than light. He must be born again and that by a sovereign, supernatural work
of God (Eph. 2:11, Rom. 8:7-8). 4. God the Father chose a people in Christ, before
the foundation of the world. He chose them not because of any worth or merit
in them, or because of any foreseen act they would or would not commit. He
elected them to salvation by grace through faith in Christ just because it
pleased Him to do so (Eph. 1:4-5, Rom. 8:29-30). 5. Jesus Christ, who was God manifested in the
flesh, came into this world to save His people from their sin. Our Lord's
life and death was for a particular people, His elect, who were given to Him
in the eternal covenant of grace. All for whom He died shall never perish,
neither shall any man pluck them out of His hands (Matt. 1:21, John 10:15-29,
John 6:37-39). 6. The Holy Spirit will effectually call to
repentance and faith all for whom Christ died. In
the day of His power His people shall be made willing. The Holy Spirit will
reveal Christ to all of God's elect, by the gospel, and they will all in time
believe on the Lord Jesus Christ (John 16:13-15, Ps. 110:3, I Thess. 1:5). Christians Do Not Believe they are saved
because of any act of their freewill or decision they made but rather an act
Of God's Freewill! Here is a quote from C.H. Spurgeon: "Philosophy and
religion both discard at once the very thought of free-will; and I will go as
far as Martin Luther, in that strong assertion of his, where he says,
"If any man doth ascribe aught of salvation, even the very least, to the
free-will of man, he knoweth nothing of grace, and
he hath not learnt Jesus Christ aright." It may seem a harsh sentiment;
but he who in his Soul believes that man does of his own free-will turn to
God, cannot have been taught of God, for that is one of the first principles
taught us when God begins with us, that we have neither will nor power, but
that he gives both; that he is "Alpha and Omega" in the salvation
of men." 7. All who are God's elect, all for whom Christ
died, all whom the Holy Spirit brings to repentance and faith, shall
persevere in that faith unto death and will inherit an eternal enjoyment of
the blessed Godhead (Heb. 10:39, I Pet. 1:5). This is what Christians believe. This is what
distinguishes us from all false gods and false hopes. Are You A Christian? By: Don
Bell |
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A Thought From Our Pastor: Resisting Temptations. James 4:7 “Submit yourselves
therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.” James here is speaking about not allowing sin to
over take you. Satan is the father of sin in fact he created sin. Sin came
into the world when Eve allowed the old snake to convince her to eat of the
forbidden fruit. We are sinners by nature, conceived in sin, and came from
our mother’s womb speaking lies. However, when we are saved that should
change us because we receive a new nature and with this new nature we can
refuse to sin. If we have the strength to do it sin will not over take us any
more. We can truly live lives for the Lord. James says ““Submit yourselves therefore to God.” This means we are to be
under obedience to God and serve Him and Him only. The strength to do this is
in Christ and is give to us through the Holy Spirit; however it also depends
on us, in that we must have a desire and determination not to sin. In order
for us to live righteous lives we must “Resist the devil” as James put it.
The word “resist” means “to stand
against” How can we stand
against something if we are allowing it in our lives. When Satan brings sin
or causes sin around us we are not to allow it to over take us, but rather
resist the temptation. We are not resisting sin if we fall prey to it, and
allowing it into our lives. Christian, no form of sin is justified. When we
allow sin into our lives it works against us and halts our true service to
the Lord. We cannot serve two masters, therefore we must resist one and if we
allow sin to over take us then we are serving Satan and not the Lord. James
said “Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.” Yes he will flee from you
because you have resisted him and he wants to cause as much damage to the
Christian as he can and if you will not allow him to cause you to sin he will
simply go to someone else. It is our responsibility to the Lord to resist
Satan and sin, because if we do not resist Satan we will resist the Lord,
remember we cannot serve two masters.
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