Sovereign Grace Missionary Baptist Church "Where The Truths Of God’s Word Have Been Taught For More Than Fifty-Two Years” 1217 Dillon Texarkana, Texas 75501 August 10, 2014 Newsletter Number 477 Brother Randy Johnson, Pastor Brother Ronnie Henderson, Song Director Pastor E-Mail: pastor@sgmbaptist.com Web Site: ww.sgmbaptist.com

Our Prayer Request: 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, Helen Maggard, Johnnie Stephens, Alecia Stephens, and children, Frankie Baldridge and daughter, Buckie Thompson, Frank & Sonya Trusty, Frank & Dawana Reigel, Andrew Preston, Larry & Martha Mollette, Larry Mollette II & Family, Kerry Pennington, Kim Poole, Danny & Nita Mollette, The Muncy Family, Robert Riggs, Wendell Henderson, Judy Dunn, Martha Gray, Joshua Kidd, Matthew Kidd, Ronnie and Sarah Henderson, Ronnie Henderson Jr. & Children, Ricky Henderson and Family, Jacie Henderson, Velma Hammond, Charles, Don Hammond and Families, Archie & Barbara Griffin, Bro. & Sister Bob Keller, Donna Johnson, Fay Johnson, James and Luann Reynolds, Timothy Fails, Nathan & Claire Fails, Jacob Ramsey, Jerry Hughes, Teresa Bookout, Pastor G. L. Burr, Melody Carr, Janie Capps, Imajo Tracy, Linda Hughes, Roy Lemmon, Rosie Tomlin, Pat Abercrombie, Donna Jones, Dale Trahan, Ricky and Margaret McCoy, Brother David O’Neal, James & Diane Thomas, Gina Peel, James and Lynn Tomlin, Brother Kelley and Sister Hinson, Megan Whitaker, Manual Seymour, Sr., Brother Jerry and Sister Jean Dodson, 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.

A Thought From Pastor Johnson: Exclusion “I pray for them: I pray not for the world, but for them which thou hast given me; for they are thine.” John 17:9 Does Jesus Christ love the entire population of the world? Did He die for the entire population of the world? Is there really such a thing as election which excludes a large section of the world population? In today’s churches pastors preach that all have the opportunity to be saved; it is just a matter of making a decision, choosing, praying a prayer, being baptized, joining a particular church, or etc, etc, etc. They would demonize the doctrine of election as something horrible on God’s part if it were true. They whip their congregations into a hatred frenzy over the teaching and then tell their people to do things that they cannot do, like making a choice to allow Christ into their hearts, or turn over a new leaf. But I must ask where are those terms used in the bible? In all the accounts of salvation, no where are these commands ever quoted. Why not? Because they are man made terms and are useless. The truth is no one has an opportunity to do any of these things, because salvation is not of man, it is of God, Who gives salvation to whom He choose and not to any who would choose Him. The short answer to our question “is there exclusion with God” the answer is yes! Yes because without election not one single person would have ever been saved. Romans 3:11 “There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God.” They will not seek Him because they neither understand Him nor want Him. They want to be religious because they believe they have something, it makes them feel good, or it makes them think they have something they neither want nor have. People simply want to feel good, they want to feel like they have made a difference in their life and have something special because they are good people, but the truth is they have neither. There is an exclusion with God, He hated Esau, He chose Judas Iscariot to be a devil, and without election all souls would have went to hell. God chooses a lot more than you think He does and He has chosen and adopted His children to be His and also delivering them. God loves the elect and hates the rest of the population. His judgments will be great upon them, and in eternal hell fire will they suffer. The truth is election is real and exclusive and those that believe it to be a lie are in danger of eternal suffering. How could God leave salvation up to man, if man will never come to Him for salvation? John said in John 6:44 “No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him…” and in Romans 8:14 God said “For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.” Then I must ask who can make a decision for Christ? Do all have the opportunity to be saved? If you look up the word draw in John 6:44 it means “to drag” because we will never come on our own. We see it in Jeremiah 31:3 “The LORD hath appeared of old unto me, saying, Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee.” We also see it used in John 12:32 “And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me.” Where we must exclude the word “men” because it was added by the translation and is not part of the original text. It is additions like this which confuse the weak. I will conclude with this thought. If you are one who thinks election is of the devil then simply study it. Read the scriptures it is used in and think about them. Just because election is exclusive does not make it of the devil, it makes it Gods love toward them who otherwise would have never repented from sin, and that makes it wonderful!

A Thought From Oscar Mink, Our Former Pastor: Natural Man: An Absolute Rebel Against God Webster defines the word "choice" as the act of choosing. The word implies action. There can be no choice apart from external action, and vice versa, there is no external action apart from prior choice. The time allowed for choice or decision may be incalculably small, but it is always present. Adam and Eve, man's first biological ancestors were created by God and placed in the garden of Eden. Adam, in the covenant with God was made the federal head of the human race, and officially represented all mankind in the presence of God. God, in the covenant with Adam promised him perpetual blessings on the condition that he would abstain from all evil (Gen. 2:16-17). Adam, though created innocent, was also created mutable and capable of change. When the Divine restraint exercised in Adam's behalf was removed, Adam became prone to change, and in this state of proness made choice against God, thereby bringing a radical change to his nature, and death to all of his posterity (Rom. 5:12). Adam's choice of Eve in preference to God was deliberate (I Tim. 2:14), and destructive to all God likeness in his nature. Post-dating the fall every child is born from the womb of wrath, and with a wrathful nature toward God (Eph. 2:3). So then, they that are of the Adamic nature CANNOT make a single choice pleasing to God (Rom. 8:8). ". . . verily every man at his best state is altogether vanity," (Ps. 39:5). The spiritual impotence of man's will, as he is in nature, is absolute. Love for sin, and hatred of God is so intertwined in fallen man's nature that his thoughts are only evil continually (Gen. 6:5). Christ brings this truth to the fore front when He says, "No man can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other," (Mt. 6:24). And again, He that knows the intents and thoughts of every heart says, "He that is not with Me is against Me," and those against Christ are not passive. No, they are actively against Him, for He says they "scatter abroad," (Mt. 12:30). To presuppose a person will choose something which he hates with a perfect hatred and opposes with unrelenting vehemence is absurd. It is far more easier for the spiritually renewed mind to conceive of clay fashioning itself into decorative ornaments of great value than it is to give birth to the thought that fallen man can choose God, whom he hates with a total hatred (Rom. 1:30). Man by nature is not merely wicked, but desperately wicked (Jere. 17:9). He is "Dead in trespasses and sins," (Eph. 2:1). The Adamic man is destitute of all good, and every spark of his energy is used to perform evil. He is not only a sinner by birth, but is also a sinner by choice, for as soon as he be born he goes astray "speaking lies," (Ps. 58:3). Fallen man is a slave to his nature. All of his choices are worldly. He ever pleases the Prince and power of the air. His single ambition is to fulfill the desires of the flesh and mind. From the Divine standpoint he is a child of wrath, deserving immediate and everlasting destruction (Eph. 2:2-3). The natural man begins his rebellion against God in the womb of his mother, magnifies it in his earthly life, and apart from the gracious choice of God, he will stand in the judgment and hear God say, "He which is filthy, let him be filthy still," (Rev. 22:11).