Sovereign Grace Missionary Baptist Church "Where The Truths Of God’s Word Have Been Taught For More Than Fifty-Three Years” 1217 Dillon Texarkana, Texas 75501 January 18, 2015 Newsletter Number 500 Brother Randy Johnson, Pastor Brother Ronnie Henderson, Song Director Pastor E-Mail: pastor@sgmbaptist.com Web Site: www.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, Johnnie Stephens, Alecia Stephens, and children, Frankie Baldridge and daughter, Buckie Thompson, Frank & Sonya Trusty, Frank & Dawana Reigel, Andrew Preston, Larry & Martha Mollette and Her Family, Larry Mollette II & Family, Kerry Pennington, Kim Poole, Doris Hammock, Danny & Nita Mollette, The Muncy Family, 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, James and Luann Reynolds, Timothy Fails, Nathan & Claire Fails, Jacob Ramsey, Jerry Hughes, Pastor G. L. Burr, Melody Carr, Janie Capps, Imajo Tracy, Linda Hughes, Roy Lemmon, Rosie Tomlin, James and Lynn Tomlin, Pat Abercrombie, Donna Jones, Dale Trahan, Ricky and Margaret McCoy, Brother David O’Neal, James, Diane & Brooke Thomas, Gina Peel, Brother Kelley and Sister Hinson, Melissa Elliott, Megan Whitaker, Manual Seymour, Sr., Brother Jerry and Sister Jean Dodson, Mr. Hedges, Danny Hammond, Claire’s friend, 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 Though For Your Bible Study: 1 Peter 2:25 “For ye were as sheep going astray, are now returned unto the Shepherd and Bishop of your souls” How distinctly this shows that those sinners who trust in the Lord Jesus for salvation were already His sheep, when as yet they had not been brought to know their need of the great salvation accomplished for them by their “Good Shepherd.” “Ye are now returned unto the Shepherd”: how distinctly this shows the sure results of grace, through the quickening work of the Holy Spirit. As the result of that work, the Lord Jesus possesses the chief attraction for them. “My sheep hear My voice...and they follow Me.” They now seek no other place of refuge, no other Guide but Himself. They may possess but little comfort. They have but a very faint assurance of their interest in His love. Great may be the depths of inbred evil over which they have to mourn; yet withal they can truly say that their eyes are toward Him and the desire of their hearts is after Him. The sure evidence this, that His eyes were previously towards them, and His desire first after them, and that His voice has effectually called them to Himself. “Them also I must bring, and they shall hear My voice.” How emphatic! How certain is the Shepherd’s language! How complete are the arrangements of the Everlasting Covenant! How irresistible are the workings of sovereign electing grace! So is it always. He begins the work in the soul of His beloved; and it is He who carries on that work unto the end. Both the beginning and the end shall evermore be to the glory of His matchless, free, and unmerited grace.—Thomas Moore There are two points in the above quotation, most blessed and important, yet little understood today, which perhaps call for a brief amplification. First, the fact that those who savingly believe in Christ are His “sheep” before ever they turn unto Him, for it is to be duly noted that 1 Peter 2:25 is not treating of the recovery of backslidden Christians, but of their first coming to the Saviour. As our Lord so plainly declared, “Other sheep I have (not “shall have”)...them also I must bring” (John 10:16). They belonged to Him from all eternity. They were His by the Father’s election and by His gift of them to His Son. But, it may be objected, these sheep are said to “return” to Christ, so they must previously have been in the fold. The answer is simple: Christ’s sheep went astray from Him when they fell in Adam, their natural head, and consequently they were born in sin. Second, the voice of the verb. It is not “ye have returned unto the Shepherd,” but “are now returned.” This denotes they were completely passive therein. The work of regeneration is entirely Divine, and nothing of man enters into it. It is wrought in us, and not done by us. The active follows the passive, as the results of life follow the bestowment of life. Our coming to Christ is the consequence of His having drawn us. It is a sovereign act of Divine power which brings us from death unto life, in which we are completely passive. By A. W. Pink

A Thought For The Week: Trust and Do; Do and TrustTrust in the Lord, and do good; so shalt thou dwell in the land, and verily thou shalt be fed. Psalm 37:3 Trust in the Lord, and do good; so shalt thou dwell in the land, and verily thou shalt be fed. (Psalm 37:3) Trust and do are words which go well together, in the order in which the Holy Spirit has placed them. We should have faith, and that faith should work. Trust in God sets us upon holy doing: we trust God for good, and then we do good. We do not sit still because we trust, but we arouse ourselves and expect the Lord to work through us and by us. It is not ours to worry and do evil but to trust and do good. We neither trust without doing nor do without trusting. Adversaries would root us out if they could; but by trusting and doing we dwell in the land. We will not go into Egypt, but we will remain in Immanuel's land-the providence of God, the Canaan of covenant love. We are not so easily to be got rid of as the Lord's enemies suppose. They cannot thrust us Out nor stamp us out: where God has given us a name and a place, there we abide. But what about the supply of our necessities? The Lord has put a "verily" into this promise. As sure as God is true, His people shall be fed. It is theirs to trust and to do, and it is the Lord's to do according to their trust. If not fed by ravens, or fed by an Obadiah, or fed by a widow, yet they shall be fed somehow. Away, ye fears! By Charles Spurgeon

A Thought From Our Pastor: Come Lord Jesus! Colossians 3:4 "When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory." I often pray “Come Lord Jesus, please come” not because I am in want of death but that I am ready to go home. I am ready to live in a world where the lost do not live. A land where the rule and laws of Jehovah God rules and are obeyed. I am ready for a land where there are no haters of God. So I pray and pray often come Lord Jesus, please come. I am ready to be in the place where Jesus has prepared for me. We preach often of this place and now I am ready to go. In Revelation 22:20 it says "He which testifieth these things saith, Surely I come quickly. Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus." This is a promise from our Lord and Saviour that He will come quickly and I pray that day will soon arrive. I ask you all to pray with me that this event comes quickly and we are rescued from a world of haters of God. From a world of filth and disgust where right is wrong and wrong is right. From a world where anything goes and our forefathers would bow their heads in shame and disgust. From a world that our own government is full of hate for God and us as Christians. From a world who adores Islam over Christianity; murderers over a people of love. Yes I am ready for Jesus to come, I am ready for the wrath of God, and I am ready for Jesus to sit on David’s throne and to rule the world and make people do all that is against their will and worship Him and His rules. I wonder how the haters of God will like that! Yes, come Lord Jesus!