Sovereign Grace Missionary Baptist Church "Where The Truths Of God’s Word Have Been Taught For More Than Fifty-Five Years” 1217 Dillon Texarkana, Texas 75501 April 09, 2017            Newsletter Number 614 Brother Randy Johnson, Pastor                   Brother Ronnie Henderson Sr., Song Leader Pastor E-Mail: pastor@sgmbaptist.com                                          Web Site: www.sgmbaptist.com “A Church Seeking To Please God In Prayer, Song, Preaching, And Worship.”

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, Tyrell Loyd, Bonnie, Ted O'Bonion, Larry Mollette II & Family, Kerry Adcock, Kim Poole, Danny & Nita Mollette, The Muncy Family, Lee & Mary Mollette, 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, 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, Linda Hughes, Donna Jones, Brandy Sullivan, Gina, Brother Kelley and Sister Hinson, Manual Seymour, Sr, The Harris Family, The Morris Family, Teresa Bookout, Little Titan Thomas (Trent and Tiffane Thomas child), James – Diane and Brooke Thomas, Jace Fails, Steve Sparks, Sister Ann McSwain, Brother Archie and Barbra Griffin, Brandy’s Mother, Elaine Sparks, James daughter’s mother-in-law, David Henderson,  Brother Curtis Pugh, Brother Dan Sullivan the work in Thailand, Brother Raul and the work in Romania, Bro. Sergey Mochalov and the Churches in Russia.

A Thought From our Pastor: The Amazing Grace Of God. “For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.” John 1:17 Oh, how sweet is the thought of God’s Amazing grace. Brother John Newton wrote these words back in 1779 “Amazing grace! (how sweet the sound) That sav’d a wretch like me! I once was lost, but now am found, Was blind, but now I see.” What a masterpiece! I believe our gracious God inspired Brother Newton to write these very words. I believe God gives people life happenings in order to make them appreciate Him more. John Newton found grace in Jesus Christ when he was saved, and after the life God had planned out for him, it caused him to write these words, and how sweet they truly are. When I think of God’s grace the single word “amazing” indeed comes to mind. When I look around at everyday people and see the ugliness in them and in their deeds, I truly understand the words “Amazing Grace…How precious did that grace appear, The hour I first believ’d!” because without God’s amazing grace I would be just like the lost world and heading to the eternal fires of hell. But instead God’s grace brought Jesus Christ to this world, and God’s grace brought Jesus Christ to Calvary’s tree, and God’s grace caused Jesus Christ to give His blood to wash away my sins. It was God’s amazing grace that took this poor depraved soul from the power of Satan and delivered me to Jesus Christ to be washed in His blood. It is because of that, that makes me white as show, and now a pure child of the Living God, what Amazing Grace. I know as John Newton knew, that life here on this earth can deliver some most powerful, sinful, ugly, and God hated things. But by Grace God before the world began, He chose my life and this is the fulfillment of it, every day that I live. But this I also know, “Amazing Grace… Through many dangers, toils and snares...we have already come. T'was Grace that brought us safe thus far...and Grace will lead us home.” And believe me, God will lead me home when this life is fulfilled, and God’s predestination has been fulfilled. Truth and grace came by Jesus Christ, for me and for all of God’s elect. This is what grace is beloved, it is deliverance from Satan, sin, and the penalty of the law that Moses delivered. The Psalmist wrote these unforgettable words, “"Surely his salvation is nigh them that fear him; that glory may dwell in our land...Mercy and truth are met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other...Truth shall spring out of the earth; and righteousness shall look down from heaven...Yea, the LORD shall give that which is good; and our land shall yield her increase...Righteousness shall go before him; and shall set us in the way of his steps." Psalms 85:9-13 It is God and God’s grace that looked down on a sinful world, smiled on a limited number, delivered His Own Beloved Son and called us with a holy calling and saved our unworthy souls. When you have been saved, and say these words, then you will know what Amazing Grace truly is. If you have not had the calling of God’s Spirit, and been brought to Jesus Christ for the blood cleaning then you cannot know what Amazing Grace truly is.

HE SHALL GIVE US ALL THINGSBy Elder Curtis Pugh The idea that God gives all things involved with the salvation of sinners without demanding some sort of works is foreign to the natural minds of men. They think that they must “accept the Lord,” or “pray the sinner's prayer,” or “get baptized,” or “get born again,” or “open their heart's door to Jesus” or some such thing in order to be born again.   What I am saying is this: the idea of free grace is foreign to the notions of man-made religions of all sorts. Some say take a bath in the Ganges River, some say make a pilgrimage to Mecca, some say be baptized in our church, etc., etc. The adherents of all popular religions say these things or something similar. “Do this” or “be sincere” or “join our church” or keep the law and you will be born again are some of the claims made. But the message of the Bible is completely at odds with the ideas of men. Thus God said, “There is a way that seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death,”  (Proverbs 16:25).   Paul in Romans 8:32 wrote: “He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?”  Someone said Paul's is the argument of the mother and the stroller. If you can talk a mother out of her baby, you can talk her out of the stroller to go along with the baby. If she will give up her precious baby, the other things are inconsequential.   Based upon the fact that God did not spare His very own beloved Son, but turned Him over to wicked men to do what God's “hand and...counsel determined before to be done,” (Acts 4:28) surely He will give us all things necessary for the Christian life. In God's plan of salvation Paul said God delivered Christ “up for us all.” The “us” there, obviously, is not every individual living, dead and yet to be born. He includes himself along with the “saints” or Christians at Rome for those are the people to whom he wrote. But the point is that since God gave up His Son who was the most precious thing to Him, God will with Christ give all things needed to those for whom Christ was given.   God gives: “freely.” With Christ God freely gives us all things necessary for the Christian life. He gives first spiritual life, godly sorrow, repentance, faith and so works in us by His Spirit to motivate and enable us to live for Him. Paul wrote,  “...he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ,”  (Philippians 1:6). That beginning of a good work is the new birth of which John wrote saying they  “were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God,” (John 1:13).

Church Notices: We have many church members in need of prayer, be sure to pray daily for them.   Brother Steve McCool is going to visit with us on Wednesday April 12, he will also be speaking.

“And the LORD descended in the cloud, and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the LORD…And the LORD passed by before him, and proclaimed, The LORD, The LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth… Keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty; visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children's children, unto the third and to the fourth generation.” Exodus 34:5-7