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 September 23, 2017            Newsletter Number 638 Brother Randy Johnson, Pastor                   Brother James Thomas, 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.”

Please Join Us As We Pray For: 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 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, Gina, Brother Kelley and Sister Hinson, The Harris Family, Teresa Bookout, Little Titan Thomas (Trent and Tiffane Thomas child), James – Diane and Brooke Thomas, Jace Fails, Steve Sparks, Sister Ann McSwain, Elaine Sparks, James daughter’s mother-in-law, David Leman, Danny Hammond,  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: God Works In Us, The Will To Do…Philippians 2:13 “For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.” I know and understand mankind enough to know this, as mankind we believe there is not much we can’t do if we just set our hearts and minds to its conclusion. However, we must understand the works of God, for spiritual things can only be accomplished by God. Fleshly speaking there is a lot we can do if we set our minds to it, but it is only by the power of God that we can work spiritual satisfaction to God. First, let’s look at salvation. Only God can cause a lost sinner to repent and seek salvation, and to receive it. No one has the ability to turn from their old nature to a new one if God has no given them a new one to start with. God uses the examples of an Ethiopian changing their skin color of a leopard changing their spots. Neither can change what they are no more than man can change what they are, depraved, lost sinners. Second, let’s look at church membership. Church membership is brought about by God also. People don’t just join a church, God has chosen the fold before the foundation of the world, and He has elected His church before the foundation of the world. God in comparing the church to a human body says in 1 Corinthians 12:18 “But now hath God set the members every one of them in the body, as it hath pleased him.” He said “every member” meaning that if you are a true church members that God has set you in the church, and in the position He wants you to serve in that church. God chooses the Pastors, missionaries, and all other workers as He is pleased to send them. Just as He sent the prophet Jeramiah. The main problem with so many today is they either fail to understand these truths, or they are ignoring this. Let us look at what John said in John 3:27 “John answered and said, A man can receive nothing, except it be given him from heaven.” Some have said we should add “of his own will” when speaking of man, which does the original text no harm at all. Because spiritually speaking the closer a believes is to this thought, the closer they are to God, and trusting God in everything. God is always telling us to look to Him for our life resources. James wrote in James 1:5 “If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.” Whatever you need ask of God, stop trying to do-it-yourself. You are not washing your car, or changing your oil. You are a believer in Jesus Christ, you are attending to the King’s work. When working for the King it is best done if he is doing it through you. Let us look at what Amos said in Amos 7:15 “And the LORD took me as I followed the flock, and the LORD said unto me, Go, prophesy unto my people Israel.” Amos did not just choose to do this work, God sent Him and like so many others, he obeyed and did as the Lord said. We must be patient and wait on the Lord, He knows what is best and what need to be done. The “preacher” Solomon wrote in Ecclesiastes 7:8 a very profound truth, “Better is the end of a thing than the beginning thereof: and the patient in spirit is better than the proud in spirit.” Let us remember that waiting on the Lord to act in us is better than just acting. I remember waiting more than 20 years in the ministry before the Lord gave me my first and only church, and it was worth the wait! If you have a need, your church has a need, or if you are searching for a work, or searching for workers, always remember God sets people in place as He chooses, be patient. We will end with these words, “And no man taketh this honour unto himself, but he that is called of God, as was Aaron…So also Christ glorified not himself to be made an high priest; but he that said unto him, Thou art my Son, to day have I begotten thee.” Hebrews 5:4-5 DO NOT ATTEMPT IT, IF GOD HAS NOT CALLED YOU TO IT. Amen!

SentimentalismBy Elder O. B. Mink (our former Pastor) SENTIMENTALISM, A VICIOUS ENEMY OF THE CHURCH AND PASTOR Sentimental: “Marked or governed by feeling.” (Webster). THE PASTOR: 1. CAN NOT PREACH Election because the daughter of Brother and Sister Elite, is in attendance with her family, and they belong to an Arminian church. And we do not want to offend them. 2. CAN NOT PREACH ON BAPTISM because some of the church members have loved ones who have been sprinkled, and they would surely believe the Pastor’s remarks were directed toward them. 3. CAN NOT PREACH ON CLOSED COMMUNION, for some will feel left out, and nobody likes that left out feeling. 4. CAN NOT PREACH ON MISSIONS, because we do not want to offend our members or visitors who have some Primitive Baptist kinfolks. 5. CAN NOT PREACH CHURCH TRUTH, for there are some good people in the invisible church, and many of them are fiends to some members of our church. 6. CAN NOT PREACH ON HOLY LIVING, for everyone sins. Therefore, we are not qualified to rebuke our brother or sister for sinning. “Who is it that is so sin free that they can cast the first stone?” (It was rank and God defying hypocrites to whom Christ put this question; it was not addressed to the church. The Lord’s church is not only qualified to officially rebuke sin, but is commanded of the Lord to do so (John 8:1-10; I Corinthians 5:12-13, 6:2-3; Romans 6:14-15; I John 2:1). 7. CAN NOT PREACH STEWARDSHIP, because Brother Hardship is in debt way over his head, and to preach tithing would be like rubbing salt in his wounds. 8. Etc. THE SHAMEFUL RESULT OF THE ABOVE SENTIMENTAL RESTRICTIONS IS A CHURCH AND PASTOR THAT SIMPLY, CAN NOT PREACH! Nevertheless, the word of God admonishes every New Testament church and Pastor, saying: “Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine.” (II Timothy 4:2). And the first New Testament preachers said: “... WE OUGHT TO OBEY GOD RATHER THAN MAN” (Acts 5:29).