Sovereign Grace Missionary BaptistChurch
1217 Dillon  Texarkana, Texas  75501
  July 15, 2012          
   Newsletter Number 375

Brother Randy Johnson, Pastor                     Brother Ronnie Henderson, Song Director
  Pastor E-Mail: pastor@sgmbaptist.com          Web Site: www.sgmbaptist.com

"Where The Truths Of God’s Word Have Been  Taught For More Than Fifty Years”




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, Frank & Sonya Trusty,  Frank & Dawana Reigel,  Andrew Preston, Larry Mollette, Larry Mollette II & Family, Kerry  Pennington, Kim Poole, Danny & Nita Mollette, Wendell Henderson, Judy  Dunn, Martha Gray, Joshua Kidd, Matthew Kidd, Dina McCray, Ronnie Henderson  Jr. & Son Kevin Henderson, Ricky Henderson and Family,  Bro. & Mrs.  Hammond, Charles Hammond, Archie & Barbara Griffin, Bro. & Sister Bob  Keller, Kathy Rosinbaum, Mary Ramsey, Donna Johnson, Fay Johnson, James and  Luann Reynolds, Timothy and Nathan Fails, Jacob Ramsey, Jim & Linda  Meier, Letha Langford, Brother & Sister Kelley Hinson and Kelley Lee,  Jerry Hughes, Sister Nita Bookout, Justin Bookout, Pastor G. L. Burr, Melody  Carr, Janie Capps, Imajo Tracy, Linda Hughes, Roy Lemmon, Lee  Mollette’s Daughter & Granddaughter Kristal, Dale Barnes –  Kathy Johnson and their mother, Tammy Hairston, Tommy Lee Walker, Pat and  Waymon Abercrombie, Barbara Brewer, Michelle Knowlton, Donna Jones,  Frank  Roberts, Dina Thomas, Dale and Linda Trahan, Linda Mollette, Brother Curtis  Pugh, Brother Sullivan and the work in Thailand, Brother Raul and the work in Romania,  and  Bro. Sergey Mochalov and the Churches in Russia.



The Pastors  Corner:



“God’s  Relationship To The Universe” Part 2



In our second lesson we want to look at two points  (1.) God Preserves The Universe and (2.) God Controls The Universe. As wee  look at these two points briefly they should bring great joy to every  Christian’s heart. The very fact that God Preserves The Universe means  we can trust that nothing will ever happen in all creation unless God causes  it or He allows it. Today some speak of “global warming” however  it is nonsense because the universe is preserved by God’s power. “Thou,  even thou, art LORD alone; thou hast made heaven, the heaven of heavens, with  all their host, the earth, and all things that are therein, the seas, and all  that is therein, and thou preservest them all; and the host of heaven  worshippeth thee.” Nehemiah 9:6. God will only allow what He has  predetermined to come to pass and if “global warming” exists it  is part of His plan to melt the earth. The oxygen level, the heat from the  sun, and the cold are all controlled by God. Secondly is God Controls The  Universe; the fact that God preserves the universe also means that He  controls it. He controls the weather, the seas, sun, moon, stars, and etc. He  also controls man and even mans will; if anyone says God cannot change mans  will believe him not. Remember Pharaoh, God changed his heart. Exodus 9:12  "And the LORD hardened the heart of Pharaoh..."  Also notice John  12:40 "He hath blinded their eyes, and hardened their heart; that they  should not see with their eyes, nor understand with their heart, and be  converted, and I should heal them." Folks people say all sorts of things  but take many of them with a grain of salt; because God is in total control  of every aspect of His creation. Everything is done according to Gods blessed  will. God controled the hearts of them that crucified Jesus Christ. Acts 4:27  - 28 "For of a truth against thy holy child Jesus, whom thou hast  anointed, both Herod, and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles, and the people  of Israel,  were gathered together, (28.) For to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel  determined before to be done."




For Our Weekly  Meditation:



They  Preached the Gospel



I preached a sermon by this title recently and  thought I would write down the thoughts the Lord has given me on this.



At the ending of the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and  Luke we see our Lord after His resurrection and before His ascension meeting  with the eleven apostles. In all three places He gives strict orders of what  He expects them to do once they have been empowered by the Holy Spirit. They  were commanded to preach the Gospel! Not just in Jerusalem but by starting there and going  out into all the world.

 Luke 24:47 “And that repentance and remission  of sins should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.”  And  so they did. These eleven men preached the Gospel of their Lord and Savior  Jesus Christ through out all Jerusalem, Judea, Sumeria, and to the utter most parts of the  world.

One thing I would like to note here is that if you  will notice in the “Great Commission” Our Lord gave to these  eleven men, He gave it to His church. Jesus was meeting with the first church  when He gave the Commission. He was not nor did He give it to all those who  claim to be Christians. This Commission was given to the first church to be  passed down to their lineage through out the time to come.

The purpose of this Great Commission? To spread the  Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ and to grow the church. No where did Jesus us  tell the first church to preach the Gospel and leave the new converts to  wonder about. No He told Peter in the last part of John 21:17 “Feed my  sheep.” One of the greatest mistakes that we as Baptist have made down  through our history and are still making today is we preach the Gospel and we  see the Lord save someone then we don't finish up by teaching them the ways  of our Lord. This has brought about much false doctrine and disbelief in  churches and in Christianity. Because we don't follow up with those whom the  Lord has saved with strong bible teaching many out there are falling in false  doctrine and into apostate Christianity. 

Now back to our main topic.

The first church was command by our Lord to preach  the Gospel to all nations. We see them doing this on the day of Pentecost. In  Acts 2 we see that there are Jewish men gathered at Jerusalem from “every nation under  heaven.” The Apostles, by the Holy Spirit, where preaching the Gospel  to these men. These men could understand them in their own language and  dialects. The Lord allowed these simple uneducated men(by the world's  standards) to be able to speak in the languages these people understood.  Peter preached his first recorded Gospel sermon here in verses 14-36. When he  was done they asked him “What shall we do” Peter told them to  repent and be baptized. Now how often do we hear a sermon on repentance  today? Not very often, even in our own ranks.

Now some may wonder why the Lord chose this group of  Jews to be the first ones for the apostles to preach too? Simple, notice that  they were from “every nation under heaven”. What did the Lord  tell us in the Great Commission? Mark 16:15 “Go ye into all the world,  and preach the gospel to every creature.”  Isn't that what they did?  The Apostles, the leaders of the first church, preached the gospel to these  Jews, who were from all over the world, who were gathered at Jerusalem. And when all was said and done  the Lord saved and added to the church about three thousand souls that day.  So eventually these men would go back to their homes, in the nations where  they were from and would tell of this Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ to all  their families, friends, and everyone they came in contact with. Thus the  Gospel, through the Great Commission Jesus gave to the first church began to  spread through out the world.

So what is so different in our day? Are we not to  continue this Great Commission our Lord gave to our Forefathers of the faith?  Why are we so eager to support mission works overseas and yet deny that the  greatest mission field is here at home in our own country?

Our job as Landmark Sovereign Grace Missionary  Baptist is to preach the Gospel unto all the nations starting here at home  then going to all nations. Our job is also to teach, those whom the Lord has  saved and placed in His churches, the very Word of God, not sparing one  doctrine. I write these words not only to other ministers out there but  mostly to myself. If we fail in these areas we have failed our Lord.



By Brother Steve McCool



Notice:



The church has approved the building of our new  auditorium and work has already begun and we do praise God for it and be sure  to pray for it and those in charge of it.