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 May 14, 2017            Newsletter Number 619 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, Rick McCloskey’s brother, 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: Because Of Mine Enemies!Psalms 27:11 “Teach me thy way, O LORD, and lead me in a plain path, because of mine enemies.”   As Christians we need to cry unto the Lord that He will teach us, and lead us by His gracious hand. We live in a world that is worse than ever, times like these have never existed. I know about the persecutions and killings of the past, but our times are unique and different. When God said “And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light.” 2 Corinthians 11:14 As “today” Christians we live in times when Satan truly rules the world. His will is the rule of the day, and everything is anti-Christian. God warned us about people who follow Satan. God warned of fleshly people “Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.” John 8:44 People who follow after the things of Satan must be of Satan. God said “Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do.” Meaning, even if they say they are Christian they are not, how is one a Christian if they hate God and His Truth. As Christians we cannot serve two master, because one will cause us to hate the other. Matthew 6:24. When people who come to dislike Christians for following the plain path of God that He taught us, then who is following who? Following the Lord means to deny Satan and the things of the world. Since Satan can come as “transformed into an angel of light.” Then he can make his demon teachings look as though they are right, and in return make Gods Truth look as though it is wrong. As we look on Sunday morning we see buildings called churches full of hundreds if not thousands of souls. But what are they learning, God’s Truth or Satan’s lies? When these same people camouflaged as Christian go into the world teaching the lies of Satan, condemning the people of God for their believing the biblical truths, we live in dangerous times. God said “Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them.” Matthew 7:20 If one acts, believes, and teaches the lies of Satan then what are we supposed to think. There is a problem with the folks who call themselves Christians when they standup against the very Christians that are standing on biblical truth. This may be a newsflash to some counterfeit Christians out there, but the LGBT community is not acceptable to God. We (as Christians) are not to fight for their rights. I am not in any way condemning the LGBT people but I have no problem with what God says about them. When people who call themselves Christians and then fight against what is supposed to be their brother of sister in Christ, there is truly something very wrong with one of them. God said, “If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar: for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen?” 1 John 4:20 There are some people who call themselves Christian who will condemn Christian believers and help the LGBT people. I am not the judge of mankind, that is Jesus Christ, but something is drastically wrong with that. God said “And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet… as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind” Romans 1:27, 28a But somehow some people believe that we are to accept them (LGBT) as normal everyday families. Please remember “God gave them over to a reprobate (worthless) mind” Personally while I do not condemn the folks of the LGBT community, I will never accept them as normal families. So if some of these counterfeit Christians wants to condemn me and other believers in Jesus Christ like me for being biblical, then go ahead, God will reward me. But I make you this promise, I will never oppose my God or His word “…because of mine enemies.”

THE IMPORTANCE OF A CORRECT DIAGNOSISBy Curtis Pugh    Everyone recognizes the importance of a correct diagnosis when it comes to illness or injury. The prescription of an inadequate or incorrect medicine or other improper treatment for sickness or injury is not only useless, it can at times be harmful. No thinking person will disagree with that. Administering a band aid to a deep puncture wound is foolishness. Stitching up a wound that is filled with filth or rotten flesh is dangerous and can result in death. Cleansing and proper care of wounds is absolutely necessary and a correct diagnosis of the problem will dictate that such things be done.    But what about spiritual matters? It is necessary to make a proper diagnosis in spiritual things? Or will any idea result in spiritual good being done to men in the area of their spiritual needs? Surely thinking people will agree that a correct diagnosis in eternal spiritual matters is of more importance than even a correct medical diagnosis in mere physical and therefore temporary matters.    One more observation: sometimes hearing the doctor's words describing your diagnosis – even when it is a correct one – is unpleasant. Some people run from the doctor's diagnosis. Foolishly they think that by ignoring what ails them is a remedy and will eventually cure them. Imagine someone with gangrene in their body rejecting the doctor's diagnosis because they think their likely fatal medical condition will somehow go away.    The Bible gives us a correct diagnosis of the human condition as it naturally occurs. Of the feet it says, “For their feet run to evil, and make haste to shed blood,”  (Proverbs 1:16). A diagnosis of the heart of man is given in Jeremiah 17:9:  “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?”  Matthew 15:19 records the words of Jesus Christ regarding the heart. He said, “For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies.”  The mind of man is likewise diagnosed in  Romans 8:7:  “Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.”    We could go on, but Paul gives a complete diagnosis in Romans 1:10-18 which says:  “'As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one: There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one. Their throat is an open sepulchre; with their tongues they have used deceit; the poison of asps is under their lips: Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness: Their feet are swift to shed blood: Destruction and misery are in their ways: And the way of peace have they not known: There is no fear of God before their eyes.”    The only cure for man's terrible and hopeless spiritual condition is the Great Physician, the Lord Jesus Christ who never lost a patient yet.

Church News: The church will hold our monthly Business Meeting today at 4:00 Happy Anniversary to Pastor Randy and Sister Donna Johnson Sunday May 14th Happy Birthday to Jace Fails Wednesday May 17th Happy Birthday to Wendell Henderson Thursday May 18th