Sovereign Grace Missionary Baptist Church 1217 Dillon Texarkana, Texas 75501 May 22, 2010 Elder Randy Johnson, Pastor Bro. Ronnie Henderson, Song Director Pastor E-Mail: sgmbcpastor@baptistsonline.org Web Site: www.baptistsonline.org/sgmbc "Where The Truths Of God’s Word Are Still Taught"

You Were Asked To Pray For: All of Our Military, Their Family’s & All the Civilian Workers in The Middle East, Zee Mink Fuller and Family, Her son’s Bryan Armstrong and Hunter Hackie, Daughter Shannon, and Brother Philip & Sondra Thornsberry, Virgil & Alice Hoskins, Grandchildren, and his daughters Liz Janis and Debbie Gray, Derrick & Alecia and sons Coty & Carson Clements, Bryndon Thomas, Frank & Dawana Reigel, Andrew Preston, Helen Maggard, Renee Jackson, Larry Mollette, Larry Mollette II & Family, Kirby Mollette, Kerry Pennington, Kim Butler, Danny & Nita Mollette, Verna Mae Allen, Wendell Henderson, Judy Dunn, Joshua Kidd, Matthew Kidd, Kevin Henderson, Ronnie Henderson Jr., Vickie Sims, Debbie and Morgan Farmer, Jim Stagner, Bro. & Mrs. Hammond, Don & Neil Hammond, Charles Hammond, Eric Hammond, Archie & Barbara Griffin & son Daniel, Bro. & Sister Bob Keller, Wanda Fowler, Kathy Rosinbaum, Brenda Galusha and Jewel, Mary Ramsey, Donna Johnson, Fay Johnson, Luann Reynolds, Bro. & Sis. Curtis Pugh, Timothy and Nathan Fails, Jacob Ramsey, Jim & Linda Meier, Brother David & Sister Anne Shortt, Brother Manuel Seymour & Family, Doris Hammock, Letha Langford, Brother & Sister Kelley Hinson and Kelley Lee, Billy and Jo Hobbs, Jerry Hughes, Sister Nita Bookout and her Niece, Roger Bookout, Pastor G. L. Burr, Melody Carr, Betty, Janie Capps, Scott and Gina Sillivan, Katie Norton, An unnamed child, Imajo Tracy, Mike Hux, Sister Jean Dodson and Family, Casey 5 year old almost drown and Family, and Bro. Sergey Mochalov and the Churches in Russia.

A Thought From Pastor Johnson: Our God Is Sovereign! Introduction “Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain:” Acts 2:23 “In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will:” Ephesians 1:11 For the next foreseeable future we are going to look as deep as possible into the Sovereignty of God. I believe that God is sovereign and it is a disgrace to God and the Lord’s churches that so many have been so removed or have at the least little faith in our Sovereign God. People today and churches today have greatly disappointed God and Jesus Christ (the Head of the churches) in that most think of a Sovereign God as a devilish thought rather that a glorious one. Well I am here to say God still sits on His throne and He has not been removed! God still sits on His throne and laughs at the ignorance of man attempting to create a way of salvation rather than to trust God to save sinners. These people will one day stand before the Lord Jesus Christ and will answer for all of the ignorance and the misleading of souls into the lake of fire rather than into the kingdom of God. It will only be because we do have a Sovereign God that some regardless of their false teaching’s and people believing their heresy that some will in the end actually be saved. I have chosen these two scriptures because they both have a very profound meaning to them and to the sovereign grace of God. (1.) Jesus Christ was delivered, neither by man nor by the will of man, but by God the Father. Jesus said before His crucifixion that He gave His life, meaning it could not have been taken. He was “delivered” by the “determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God” in other words before the world was created, before man was created, before Adam and Eve had eaten the fruit, before Satan brought sin into the world, God had already elected to deliver the man Christ Jesus to the cross to pay the debt for sin. This was the “determinate counsel” or the decreed will of God, according to His “foreknowledge” or His forethought which means the seeing beforehand of an event yet to take place. God had already chose Jesus Christ to die for sin that had not even entered the world, knowing all events that would take place before the world was created. This brings us to point (2.) “…being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will”. And that would be the word “predestinated” means – to predetermine or to before ordain or to foreordain by divine decree or purpose. – so here it means that before the world began that God foreordained a limited amount of people to be saved and in order to accomplish this He also elected to send His beloved Son in the body of a man or in the likeness of sinful flesh so that man could be the sacrifice to pay in full the debt owed for the sins of all the elect. I know that the words elect, election, or God choosing just truly scares some, but before discounting these words do a bible search and see what they say, and soon we will look at these words. The sovereignty of God puts all things in Gods hands and not in ours. God saving sinners means that salvation is possible because if it were our choice we would never choose Christ as our Saviour. I personally thank God He planned all things before the world was created, because if He had not we would all go to Hell.

The Blood Takes Us On To Heaven And Is The Theme Of Our Praise: I love to hear gospel hymns as well as anyone I know. I love to hear men sing, who know the One they are singing about. The blood will be the theme of our praise in the “by and by.” Revelation 5:9-10: “And they SUNG a new song, saying, THOU ART WORTHY to take the book, and to open the seals thereof: for thou wast slain, and has redeemed us to God by THY BLOOD out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation; and hast made us unto our God kings and priests, and we shall reign on the earth.” They sing about the blood of Jesus; it is a victorious song. That’s why we love to sing the old hymn: “There is a fountain filled with blood, Drawn from Emmanuel’s veins And sinners plunged beneath that flood, Lose all their guilty stains.” You want to know what you’ll be doing on the other side? You’ll be singing about the blood of Jesus, that’s what you will be doing. “And they SUNG a new song, and said, Thou art worthy; Thou wast slain to redeem us; by thy blood, by thy blood, thou hast redeemed us.” “Thy blood has made us become priests of God. “Thy blood has made it possible to reign with thee on earth. “Thy blood has saved us. “Thy blood hast sanctified us. Thy BLOOD, thy blood, O Lord, thy blood!” How many people realize, when they read the Word of God, that God is speaking to their hearts? How many people read about the blood of Jesus Christ and exult in the knowledge that they have been redeemed with that precious blood? How many people read the trial of Jesus, in Gethsemane, as we see Him there on His knees, as His pores open and He sweats great drops of blood, and forever hallows ‘the place where He kneels—how many people read that and cry out, “Oh, Lord Jesus of Calvary, all that suffering for me!” How many read and think about the Word of God as they ought? They think of church membership, rituals, ceremonies, thus and so, but it is the BLOOD. It has always been the BLOOD and throughout all eternity it will always be the BLOOD of JESUS CHRIST. Oh, if I could only make you realize it’s the blood, beloved, that saves and you become the recipients of the power of the blood of Jesus, through faith in His blessed and holy name. Then you can say with the poet of old, “Nothing in my hand I bring, simply to Thy cross I cling,” wash me and free me in the blood of Christ. Amen. By Wayne Cox from his article “The Blood”

Bible Conference News: The church has decided on September 17 & 18 for our 7th Annual Bible Conference. Please plan to attend. More details as they come available.