Sovereign Grace Missionary BaptistChurch 1217 Dillon Texarkana, Texas 75501 October 07, 2012 Newsletter Number 386 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, Deloris Davis , Wendell Henderson, Judy Dunn, Martha Gray, Joshua Kidd, Matthew Kidd, Ronnie Henderson Jr. & Children, Ricky Henderson and Family, Jacie Henderson, Bro. & Mrs. Hammond, Charles, Don Hammond and Families, Archie & Barbara Griffin, Bro. & Sister Bob Keller, Mary Ramsey, Donna Johnson, Fay Johnson, James and Luann Reynolds, Timothy and Nathan Fails, Jacob Ramsey, Jerry Hughes, Sister Nita Bookout, Pastor G. L. Burr, Melody Carr, Janie Capps, Imajo Tracy, Linda Hughes, Roy Lemmon, Rosie Tomlin, Lee Mollette’s Daughter & Granddaughter Kristal, Dale Barnes – Kathy Johnson and their mother, Pat and Waymon Abercrombie, Barbara Brewer, Donna Jones, Frank Roberts, Dale and Linda Trahan, Linda Mollette– Shawn and girls, Ricky and Margaret McCoy, Brother David O’Neal, Robert, Brother Curtis Pugh, Brother Dan 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: Salvation Made Simple. Acts 16:30 - 31 "And brought them out, and said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved? (31.) And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house." I love this passage of scripture because it tells the way of salvation without any doubts. It is plain, simple, and straight to the point. “…Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved…” no anything else. This passage of scripture reminds me of Ephesians 2:8 - 9 "For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: (9.) Not of works, lest any man should boast." They are both irrefutable. These two men Paul and Silas did not add one single thing; no decision, no prayer, no baptism, no works, no etc, it was just plain, simple, and to the point. Paul also told us in Acts 4:12 "Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved." This includes anything in existence or that will ever exist. Whether it is a person, a work, or an act of any kind, there is no salvation in anything else no matter what it is called. We must all understand in order to be saved you must flee to Jesus Christ; He is the only name that will be your Saviour because it is He who shed His blood to cleanse us from our sins. John told us in John 1:12 "But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name:" To “receive Him” is to believe on him as your Saviour and none other. Jesus Christ does not compete with or share the glory with anyone or anything else. If salvation included another person, thing, or act, it would take glory away from Jesus Christ. Since Jesus Christ was Gods Son, and elected to die for our sins, and the One Who shed His blood for our sins then He must be the only Saviour. Man has added all this other additional stuff to salvation, Paul and Silas stated it yes simply but truthful. If one thinks about any other added thing then it belittles Jesus Christ as our Saviour by declaring His death and His shedding of blood was not enough to deliver mans salvation, however Paul neither here nor any other place in the scriptures ever recognized any thing being added to Jesus Christ for mans salvation. We are never told that we are condemned if we are not baptized, work, live the law, not anything else, however we are told if we do not believe in Jesus Christ we will be eternally damned to hell fire. John 3:18 "He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God." Salvation is made simple to those who believe, but to all others it is an impossible task. One cannot live good enough, one cannot do enough works, one cannot do anything good enough without it being overridden by our sin. No one is without sin before or after salvation because whether saved or lost we are all sinners by nature and that will not change until we leave this fleshly life. Folks God did not make the way of salvation confusing or hard (that was man) but rather simple and irreversible. Listen to Paul and Silas just as the Philippian jailer did and you too can be saved. The Lord declared in Isaiah 45:22 "Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is none else."

For Our Weekly Meditation: What Doth The LORD Require Of Thee?“…what doth the LORD thy God require of thee, but to fear the LORD thy God, to walk in all his ways, and to love him, and to serve the LORD thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul, To keep the commandments of the LORD, and his statutes,” (Deut. 10:12,13a) The first issue at hand is whether or not the LORD is thy God. Many assume that this surely goes without question; however, if truth was unveiled we would discover that many have perched upon the mustard tree simply as an attempt to embezzle its fruit. God is not hands-off Master. He is sovereign over the lives of His children to their benefit. Genuine heavenly birth produces heavenly children passionate toward the Father’s bidding in sincere holy love. Before consideration to the latter of the passage the former must be settled. Secondly, the subject is not what does the LORD request, petition, invite, or if found acceptable to those that are His. He “REQUIRES” in His autonomy over that which He has birthed absolute love and obedience. Some may presume this is a harsh thing, but to those born through the blood of the Lamb it is tender sweetness from heaven’s honeycomb of grace. It is blessed manna from the bosom of Father to possess a declaration with clear requirements of His purpose for one’s life. Heavenly children hear heavenly mercies in the word “require”. May God be pleased to permit us to hear those precious words “Thus saith the LORD God.” The LORD demands from His purchased possessions absolute reverence, holy living, boundless love, faithfulness to duty, and determined obedience with fullness of heart and soul. Can he who has been purchased by the blood of God (Acts 20:28) desire anything less? Are we to limit our thanksgivings toward our Saviour to mere feeble gifts of human speculations? God has provided the means of acceptable thanksgivings. Have we not read: “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, …” (Rom. 12:1) By Dr. Manuel J. Seymour, Sr.

Notice: The next church business meeting will be on October 14 at 4pm. Please plan to attend. The next time change will be November 04, 2012 When Daylight savings time ends. Your clocks will fall back one hour.

Happy Birthday: Sister Velma Hammond - Friday October 12

An Extra Thought: The Scriptures are sufficient . . . to inform the ignorant, to confute the erroneous, to reform the wicked, and to guide and direct, support and comfort--the godly. – Thomas Brooks