The world, so fair, so fascinating!

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(Hetty Bowman, "Life, Its Duties and Discipline" 1861)

It is possible that these words may meet the eye of some whose hearts are still set on the world, and the things of the world.

Firm are the meshes in which the world entangles the heedless footstep!

Potent is the spell which the world weaves around the thoughtless and unwary!

The mazes of pleasure firmly enslave the soul!

The world, so fair, so fascinating! How shall it be given up? How shall the fingers be unclasped from that bright cup which seems so full of happiness?

Says the worldling, "Surely the sacrifice need not be made yet! The world and its pleasures need not yet be exchanged for the cross of self-denial and sacrifice! Not yet! Not yet!"

But listen, dear reader, and if the words seem harsh--remember that they are the words of Him whose heart yearns with tenderness, pity, and compassion for the lost and the perishing:
  "No man can serve two masters. You cannot serve both God and Money." Matthew 6:24
  "If any man loves the world--the love of the Father is not in him."
  "Friendship with the world is enmity with God."

What shall we say to these things? Shall we, speak peace to you--when there is no peace? Shall we flatter you with the hope that all may yet be well? Shall we point you to a crown of unfading glory--while your heart still rebels against the light and easy yoke of the Crucified One? Nay!

Rather would we remind you of the solemn warning, that "The end of these things is death!" A day will come when your eye will grow dim, and the death-damp gather on your brow, and your feet enter the dark valley. Where, then, will be your hope? Where, then, will be your refuge?

And when that day has passed, and another, yet more terrible, has dawned--when the eternal throne shall be set, and the books opened, and the dead, small and great, stand before God--then where will you conceal yourself, that you will not hear the awful sentence, "Depart from Me, you who are cursed, into everlasting fire!"

It is because we would save you from such a fearful doom--a doom which, as surely as the Word of God is true, will overtake all, however naturally amiable and cordial they may be, yet reject the Savior's offered mercy--that we would earnestly entreat you in Christ's stead, "Be reconciled to God!"
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Daily Promises

Blue Letter Bible
August 23, 2016

In my Father's house are many mansions: if [it were] not [so], I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, [there] ye may be also. (John 14:2-3)

Right now, Jesus is preparing a place for us in heaven! And someday He will come to take us to that place. How glorious will that day be when we behold with open face the beautiful majesty of our Lord!

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 August 21, 2016            Newsletter Number 583 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 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 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, 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, 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, The Morris 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:   Blessings Proverbs 10:6a "Blessings are upon the head of the just..."   I have a question; do you know what a real blessing of God is? The word blessings here mean - benediction; by implication prosperity – and that would be prosperity to those who are just, not just saved but those that walk for the Lord. People have a gross misunderstanding of God and His blessings. Please let me illustrate to you in this example. What do you believe that God owes you? A good life, a good home, car, job, does God owe you safety in this life, etc. etc. etc. Well the truth is, God owes you nothing except eternity in the lake of fire. Blessings are like grace both are a gift from God. God never promised us prosperity on this earth, not even the most honorable believer. God never promised that our life would be enjoyable on this earth. Jesus Christ the most faithful man to ever live on this earth, lived a life of sorrow and misery His entire life. With the end of His life being hours of pain on the cross. Many of Gods most faithful servants all through history suffered miserably and died horrible deaths. So again, I will ask you, what does God owe you? Since God’s blessings are like God’s grace then both are given as God chooses. When Christians suffer on this world it is not necessarily a bad thing. When Christians are poor and are laughed at, mocked, and suffer persecution, it is not a bad thing. Let me ask this question, if God was to bless you by making you poor, would you thank God for being poor? Last Wednesday night we studied Luke 6:20 – 23 and if you read the scripture carefully it says “Blessed be ye poor” v.20 What this means is that you are blessed if you are poor. That’s right blessed, Jesus went on to say “Blessed are ye that hunger now” and He said “Blessed are ye that weep now” and He said “Blessed are ye, when men shall hate you, and when they shall separate you from their company, and shall reproach you, and cast out your name as evil”, that’s right folks it is a blessing to suffer in this life because you will be rewarded in the kingdom of God. While people think that only prosperities are God’s blessing they are wrong. If you read on in verses 24 – 26 in Luke 6 you will see this. People sometimes ask Christians when something bad happens “what did you do wrong to God”, but they are failing to see the bad things in their life could be blessings from God. The greatest thing a believer can do in this life is to suffer for the Lord. Walk with the Lord, no matter what. One of the hardest things in life to do is to praise God for being poor, despised, rejected, or etc. Look at Job, he did nothing to lose everything and to suffer as he did, but he was blessed to be used of God at that point. Folks, blessings are not just good things in life. Besides, God never promised us a prosperous life on this earth, as we count prosperous. God promised that “all things work together for good to them that love God” Romans 8:28 But, we just do not always know what good is. It could be anything, it could be a life of misery and death as Jesus suffered, or it could be a time of losing everything as Job did. Believer, what are blessings from God to you? How do you define the blessings of God? Beloved, never look at life as though God is not blessing you, nor look at it as though God owes you something good, because God owes you nothing. Now, look back to verse 22 in Luke 6, He says “hunger now” and “weep now” that means in this life. But, when this life is over rewards are coming our way. God controls everything, that means nothing happens that God does not control. God allows bad thing as He does with good things, and both are blessings to us. Only a fool would think that God’s blessing are the good things. It is a blessing to be poor for the Lord, it is a blessing when God causes us to weep, and it is a blessing to be hated by the world. Jesus went on to say in Luke 6:23 “Rejoice ye in that day, and leap for joy: for, behold, your reward is great in heaven: for in the like manner did their fathers unto the prophets.” I believe the leaping and rejoicing is the suffering for God on this earth. Folks, we take whatever comes your way, whether good or bad as a blessing from God, because it is.

SINCERE, BUT SINCERELY WRONG By A. W. Pink   It is greatly to be feared that there are multitudes in Christendom who verily imagine and sincerely believe that they are among the saved, yet who are total strangers to a work of divine grace in their hearts.   It is one thing to have clear intellectual conceptions of God's truth, it is quite another matter to have a personal, real heart acquaintance with it.   It is one thing to believe that sin is the awful thing that the Bible says it is, but it is quite another matter to have a holy horror and hatred of it in the soul.   It is one thing to know that God requires repentance, it is quite another matter to experimentally mourn and groan over our vileness.   It is one thing to believe that Christ is the only Savior for sinners, it is quite another matter to really trust Him from the heart.   It is one thing to believe that Christ is the 'sum of all excellency', it is quite another matter to LOVE HIM above all others.   It is one thing to believe that God is the great and holy One, it is quite another matter to truly reverence and fear Him.   It is one thing to believe that salvation is of the Lord, it is quite another matter to become an actual partaker of it through His gracious workings.

Church Notices;   Please pray much this week for the folks in southern Louisiana, there is much flooding. Please continue to pray for our Bible Conference September 16 – 17

"A man cannot be a faithful minister, until he preaches Christ for Christ's sake — until he gives up striving to attract people to himself, and seeks only to attract them to Christ!" -Robert Murray M'Cheyne

Weekday Devotions August 22nd

Faith’s Check Book

By Charles H. Spurgeon

 

WRATH TO GOD'S GLORY

 

"Surely the wrath of man shall praise thee: the remainder of wrath shalt thou restrain" Psalms 76:10

 

Wicked men will be wrathful. Their anger we must endure as the badge of our calling, the token of our separation from them: if we were of the world, the world would love its own. Our comfort is that the wrath of man shall be made to redound to the glory of God. When in their wrath the wicked crucified the Son of God they were unwittingly fulfilling the divine purpose, and in a thousand cases the willfulness of the ungodly is doing the same. They think themselves free, but like convicts in chains they are unconsciously working out the decrees of the Almighty.

 

The devices of the wicked are overruled for their defeat. They act in a suicidal way, and baffle their own plottings. Nothing will come of their wrath which can do us real harm. When they burned the martyrs, the smoke which blew from the stake sickened men of Popery more than anything else.

 

Meanwhile, the Lord has a muzzle and a chain for bears. He restrains the more furious wrath of the enemy. He is like a miller who holds back the mass of the water in the stream, and what he does allow to flow he uses for the turning of his wheel. Let us not sigh, but sing. All is well, however hard the wind blows.

Thought’s for the Quiet Hour

He … began to wash the disciples’ feet

John 13:5

We forget that Jesus Christ is the same today, when He is sitting on the throne, as He was yesterday, when He trod the pathway of our world. And in this forgetfulness how much we miss! What He was, that He is. What He said, that He says. The Gospels are simply specimens of the life that He is ever living; they are leaves torn out of the diary of His unchangeable Being. Today He is engaged in washing the feet of His disciples, soiled with their wilderness journeyings. Yes, that charming incident is having its fulfillment in thee, my friend, if only thou dost not refuse the lowly loving offices of Him whom we call Master and Lord, but who still girds Himself and comes forth to serve. And we must have this incessant cleansing if we would keep right. It is not enough to look back to a certain hour when we first knelt at the feet of the Son of God for pardon; and heard Him say, “Thy sins, which are many, are all forgiven.” We need daily, hourly cleansing—from daily, hourly sin.

F. B. Meyer

Put it into practice!

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      (Martyn Lloyd-Jones)
"Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable--if anything is excellent or praiseworthy--think about such things. Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me--put it into practice!" Philippians 4:8-9

You see the perfection of the Apostle's method. In verse 8 he has dealt with the realm of thought. Ah, but the Apostle knows the subtle danger that is always confronting us . . .
  the danger of being content with theoretical knowledge,
  the danger of being satisfied with doctrine only,
  the danger of failing to put into practice, that which we know.

You can be a great student even of the Bible--and live a life that is utterly contrary to it!

It is the masterpiece of Satan to make us put theory and practice into separate watertight compartments--to make men so interested in the Book, that they forget to apply its teaching. "Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me," says Paul, "put it into practice!"
"If you know these things--blessed and happy are you if you DO them." John 13:17

"It is not the knowing, nor the talking, nor the reading man, but the doing man--who at last will be found the happiest man!" Thomas Watson
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