Sovereign Grace Missionary Baptist Church "Where The Truths Of God’s Word Have Been Taught For More Than Fifty-Four Years” 1217 Dillon Texarkana, Texas 75501 January 31, 2016            Newsletter Number 553 Brother Randy Johnson, Pastor                    Brother Ronnie Henderson Sr., 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, Shirley Mc Cullough, Ted O'Bonion, Larry Mollette II & Family, Kerry Pennington, Kim Poole, Danny & Nita Mollette, The Muncy Family,  Wendell Henderson, 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, Donna Johnson, James and Luann Reynolds, Timothy Fails, Nathan 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, Brandy Sullivan, Ryan & Gina Peel and his mother, Tammy Hairston and family, Brother Kelley and Sister Hinson, Manual Seymour, Sr, Brother Jerry Dodson and family, Dewayne Sewell, The Harris Family, Teresa Bookout, LittleTitan Thomas (Trent and Tiffane Thomas child), James - Diane and Brooke Thomas, Steve Sparks, 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 our Pastor:   Study, To Show Thyself Approved!"Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth." 2 Timothy 2:15   Do you study to learn, do you study to improve, do you study to please God or yourself? If I was to ask you to put on a scale of 1 to 10 your biblical intelligence with 10 being infallible, what would yours be? If I understand people as I think I do most would be 8 to 10. However, how would God rate that scale? The bible is a very large book, it is much larger that the sixth-six book that it contains. John tells us in John 21:25 "And there are also many other things which Jesus did, the which, if they should be written every one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that should be written. Amen." See there is so much that we do not know, but of the things we do know (that's in he scriptures) there is more than we can ever learn. We must understand that the bible is God's words, (no it's not ok to say "it's the word of God) it is Gods words. The bible was not written by a simple minded man, nor by a man who is a genius, but by the Eternal, Omniscience God. If God is Omniscience than what are you? Mankind are very proud creatures, we believe that we can be the "all in all" type of person. We believe that we have the powers to be the best, competition is our middle name, so to speak. Everything is about winning, loosing, and conquering. We must be first and being second is not acceptable, while we might not admit this, it is true. We must be the smartest, the one in the center of the room who everyone listens too. We all want to have the best spouse, child, car, job, and etc. Therefore we convince ourselves that we are smarter than the next guy and that we know all that we need to know and the learning stops and the amen's, the approval/disapproval kicks in. We stand proud and others brag on us at how smart we are in the scriptures, they buy our book, read everything we write, and it becomes the gospel to them and the bible is put on the back burner. We always talk about why people go to church, I must pause to ask, why do you go to church? Do you go to church to learn or to approve or disapprove? What we all need to ask ourselves, what we all need to pray about, is that God will not stop teaching us. We all ought to attend church to learn something. Every service ought to be to learn only, it matters not how small the learning because the smallest amount of truth is an improvement, not to you, your church membership, or your Pastor, but to God. When God looks at you does He see a biblically smart person as you do? I'm not asking you to investigate the other religions, the other denominations in Christianity, no, I am asking you to study the bible, not to satisfy your family, your church, or yourself, but to satisfy God. I believe we, even the most biblical intelligent among us will be amazed at how wrong and unlearned we truly are when we face Jesus Christ. We all need to slow down, humble ourselves, stop thinking so highly of ourselves, and understand how finite that we truly are. None of us are biblical geniuses, none of us are omniscient. I have a question for you, how did you learn all that glorious infallible doctrine? How is it that you know so much truth, did God just give you all biblical knowledge and leave the rest of the Christian world in the dark? No, you learned every single letter of it from man. It is true that God teaches us because if He did not then we would never know the truth of the scriptures. However, the doctrinal truths that you have learned you have learned from a man and all men are finite in mind. The bible is too deep for us to master even if some professor or school gave you a Theology & Seminary PhD. A PhD means you learned to satisfaction their doctrine, and that you will go into the world and teach their doctrine, it does not mean that you are smarter than the next person in truth. An educated Christian is one who studies the bible with an open mind to learn from it. Not learning by studding mans words like Spurgeon, Gill, Barnes, or etc. Personally I love these writers and lots of more. I sit and learned from a very intelligent, biblically sound men, only to learn that we disagreed on a few things. You can put ten pastors with the same doctrinal learning into a room and find that there are truly disagreements among them and the reason is because none of them are 100% right. None of them are biblically infallible, although deep in their mind they may think they are. Folks, it matters not what denomination you are, who you learned from, or how intelligent you might be, we are all finite in mind and scripture. Now this is not an excuse, but rather an incentive to learn. We all need to set our minds in the scriptures, and to study, and to learn, not to please anyone but God. If you see truth that disagrees with your denomination then study it more and then believe what God says. God will help you learn, he will help you understand biblical truth, not to be smarter than everyone else but to worship Him more and better. It is all about the bible and not man, the author of books, while they may have been very smart, their not God and that means they are finite in their teaching. The Lord said in 2 Timothy 2:14 "Of these things put them in remembrance, charging them before the Lord that they strive not about words to no profit, but to the subverting of the hearers." We need to search the scriptures daily that we learn the scriptures, and not teach the scriptures. What I mean is, we need to study and learn the truth of the scriptures and not tell the scriptures what they say. Do you desire to learn from man or God? Hear your pastor and teachers but learn from the bible, don't allow anyone to convince you of a teaching unless God truly says it is truth. Please God, because it matters not what man thinks.

A Thought For Your Week: "Ye Shall Be Witnesses Unto Me" Acts 1:8 "But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth."   In one sense of the word, a "witness" is one who tells what he has seen, felt, and heard. He tells what he knows to be the truth. He is a preacher, a proclaimer of truth. In that sense, all true believers are preachers. We declare to men the truth of God regarding his Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. But the word Luke uses for "witnesses" has a far greater meaning than the bare idea of telling the truth about Christ. The word here used for "witness" quite literally means "one who lays down his life for the cause." The text could very properly be translated, "Ye shall  be MARTHRS for me." Put the two meanings together and you have an accurate description of a believer - He is one who tells men the truth about Christ and has willingly laid down his life for the cause of Christ.   By Don Fortner

A Prayer For Your Week:    "My soul cleaveth unto the dust: quicken thou me according to thy word...I have declared my ways, and thou heardest me: teach me thy statutes...Make me to understand the way of thy precepts: so shall I talk of thy wondrous works." Psalms 119:25 - 27