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 May 29, 2016            Newsletter Number 568 Brother Randy Johnson, Pastor                   Brother Ronnie Henderson Sr., Song Leader Pastor E-Mail: pastor@sgmbaptist.com                       Web Site: www.sgmbaptist.com “A Church Believing And Standing On The Truth, As The Holy Spirit Has Taught It.”

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, 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, Cindy Lane, Ronnie Henderson Jr. & Children, Ricky Henderson and Family, Jacie Henderson, Velma Hammond, Charles, Don Hammond and Families, Vickie Adkins, 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, Gina, Tammy Hairston and family, Brother Kelley and Sister Hinson, Manual Seymour, Sr, Dewayne Sewell, The Harris Family, Teresa Bookout, Little Titan Thomas (Trent and Tiffane Thomas child), James – Diane and Brooke Thomas, Jace Fails, Steve Sparks, Brother Harold & Ann McSwain, 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:   What Must I Do To Be Saved?Acts 16:30 - 31 “And brought them out, and said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved…And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house.”   What a most beautiful image of salvation God has painted for us here. It took a miracle to save this man’s soul, but God did it. Here was this poor lost sinner that was a jailer and God shook the place causing this jailer to think about his eternal life, and what he saw was horrible. God brought this old sinner to his knees and asking the glorious question “what must I do to be saved” and Paul and Silas answered “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved” and this jailer believed and was saved. This is put together like a play right before our eyes. God is the entire creator of this play, director, producer, writer, and etc. but it is not a play, it is real, real in that a poor sinner was saved and God did so much to deliver this man to Jesus Christ. Yes, it is true that God could have just had Paul or Silas to preach a salvation sermon and God could have used that sermon to have saved this man, but God wanted to show His glorious power in this man’s salvation. God ordained this entire event in order to save this jailer to show us His glorious power in salvation. People have belittled salvation by making it possible by man to bring about their own salvation, therefore leaving God out of it. These two men could have preached till they were out of breath and this jailer would have never believed in Jesus Christ. So God cause an earthquake in order to bring about this one man’s salvation. What did God do to save you? I believe if you search back to your own salvation that something happened, something different, something out of normal that caused to you seek Jesus for salvation. God may not have cause an earthquake but God did something special in your own salvation. I have heard many stories or testimonies of many people telling me about their own salvation and some of them are simply amazing. Some people God simply brings them to salvation and some are as exciting as this event here, but we all have a story of our salvation.   It has been debated much as to what is meant here in the scriptures. I have heard things like “well they did not finish the answer to the question, they only told him the beginning, they are other things to salvation”. Folks, the question is “what must I do to be saved” and the answer is “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved” there is nothing more to salvation. Jesus Christ is the Saviour, ("Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved." Acts 4:12) and nothing else is needed. We have the complete gospel in 1 Cor. 15 1-4 and here we have the complete necessity for salvation. We do not need to add anything, works, baptism, church membership, and etc. are all wonderful things for the person who are saved but for the lost sinner, as this jailer was, Christ Jesus is the need. That is the truth and to add to it or to take away from it is to change the truth into a lie. This change is made to take God out of the act of salvation and to put it into the hands of the man. However, as we can see by this glorious event, God delivered this sinner to Christ and all Paul and Silas did was to point him to Christ. If we point in any other direction, baptism, works, church membership, or etc. we are pointing to a dead-end and not to eternal life. "For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus...Who gave himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time." 1 Timothy 2:5 – 6 What must you do to be saved? Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. Folks, to believe anything different will only get you eternal damnation.

A CHILD BORN AND A SON GIVEN: By Brother Curtis Pugh      The Bible is precisely correct. It always is. For instance consider this prophecy, “For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace,” (Isaiah 9:6). The Son of God was already in existence at creation. It is said of Jesus, “All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made,” (John 1:3). Other Scriptures indicate that the Father and the Holy Spirit were also involved in creation. Jesus was and is the Son of God – just as much God as is the Spirit and the Father. Being co-equal and co-eternal with the Spirit and the Father, as the Son of God, He could not be born. As Isaiah wrote, “a son is given.” Whose son? The Son of God! The Bible is right!    Isaiah also said, “unto us a child is born.” The Son of God became the Son of man. God formed Him in the womb of the virgin Mary, thus He escaped the curse that is upon all the descendants of Adam. He was not the seed of a man, but was called the “seed” of the woman when God cursed the serpent in Eden (see Genesis 3:15). The “child” had a beginning. The Son did not!     In Christ's coming as a man God the Son took upon Himself not just a sinless body in such a way that Jesus was a sort of “zombie.” Rather God the Son took unto Himself a complete human person. This is the miracle of God in the flesh. Paul wrote, “And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh...” (1 Timothy 3:16). This revealed mystery is beyond human understanding. We can only take it by faith. The incarnation is unique: one of a kind. There never was before or since anything like it!    After specifying that while a child would be born and at the same time the Son of God would be given, Isaiah goes on to speak of His greatness. Eventually He shall openly and directly rule all creation for “the government shall be on his shoulder.” His names are these: “Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.” Ah! He is a man, yet He is “The mighty God,” “The everlasting Father,” “The Prince of Peace.” These names reveal who He is!    “Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him [Jesus], and given him a name which is above every name: That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father,” (Philippians 2:8-10). Some people confess His deity now: the confession of all others will come, but will come too late.

Noteworthy: Next weekend Friday and Saturday June 3 – 4 the Pastor will be speaking at the Grace Bible Baptist Church in Denham Springs, Louisiana for their Bible Conference. However, since the Pastor speaks twice on Saturday he will return for all the services on Sunday here. Please pray for him and all others going to this conference for God’s safe blessings. It is a long trip.