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Breadth, Length, Depth, Height

”Wherefore I desire that ye faint not at my tribulations for you, which is your glory. For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, Of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, That he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man; That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God.” | Ephesians 3: 13-19

Even in the least difficult situations, God must give us His grace.

Even in the most difficult situations, God’s people find that His grace is sufficient.

Click here to listen to the message “Breadth, Length, Depth, Height”

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Visit our primary website at www.ksgctn.org for more information about Kingsport Sovereign Grace Church, watch our livestream (when available) and access our previously recorded messages.

Kingsport Sovereign Grace Church Bulletin Article date: 8 April, 2018 | Previous post date: n/a

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Abounding Grace

“But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound:” | Romans 5: 20

Grace Alone.

I hear many folks talk about their part in salvation. I can’t relate to that.

My experience of grace was God doing everything and me doing nothing.

Sin abounded in me and I could not free myself from its deadly grip.

The only explanation as to why this sinner is saved is because God’s grace in Christ Jesus abounded to me.

Grace did much more than offer to save me, grace abounded in saving me.

I was dead – Christ gave me life.

I was lost – Christ found me.

I was blind – Christ gave me eyes of faith to behold him.

Grace Always.

I know that only the same abounding, reigning grace will bring me to glory.

Of all the many unimaginable joys of heaven, to love Christ with an unsinning heart must surely be a choice one.

Then I shall have an abounding heart of gratitude to thank Jesus Christ for his abounding grace to me.

Grace taught my soul to pray – And made my eyes o’erflow; His grace has kept me to this day – And will not let me go.

I’m looking forward to that!

~ Pastor Larry Criss

Click here to listen to the message “Our Sovereign God”

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Visit our primary website at www.ksgctn.org for more information about Kingsport Sovereign Grace Church, watch our livestream (when available) and access our previously recorded messages.

Kingsport Sovereign Grace Church Bulletin Article date: 23 August, 2020 | Previous post date: 28 May, 2021

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Temporary Believers

”There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. The same came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all men through him might believe.” | John 1: 6-7

Over the years you and I have seen many leave their profession of Christ and go back to following the course of this world.

Our Lord Jesus calls such persons temporary believers, “Which for a while believe,” yet finally “fall away,” (Luke 8: 13) John Bunyan gave the manner in which these temporary believers “draw back.” He gives nine:

They draw off their thoughts, all that they may, from the remembrance of God, death, and judgment to come.

Then they cast off by degrees private duties, as closet-prayer, curbing their lusts, watching, sorrow for sin, and the like.

Then they shun the company of lively warm Christians.

After that, they grow cold to public duty, as hearing, reading, godly conference, and the like.

Then they begin to pick holes, as we say, in the coats of some of the godly, and that devilishly; that they may have a seeming reason to throw religion (for the sake of some infirmity they have spied in them) behind their backs.

Then they begin to adhere to and associate themselves with, carnal, loose and wanton men.

Then they give way to carnal and wanton discourses in secret, and glad are they if they can see such things in any that are counted honest, that they may the more boldly do it through their example.

After this they begin to play with little sins, openly.

And then being hardened, they show themselves as they are. Thus being launched again into the gulf of misery, unless a miracle of grace prevent it, they everlastingly perish in their own deceiving.

~ Pastor Don Bell

Click here to listen to the message “Lying to God”

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Visit our primary website at www.ksgctn.org for more information about Kingsport Sovereign Grace Church, watch our livestream (when available) and access our previously recorded messages.

FreeGraceRadio.com Bulletin Article date: 10 January, 2008 | Previous post date: n/a | Danville, Kentuky

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Blood Substitute Man

”The sons of Judah; Pharez, Hezron, and Carmi, and Hur, and Shobal. And Reaiah the son of Shobal begat Jahath; and Jahath begat Ahumai, and Lahad. These are the families of the Zorathites. And these were of the father of Etam; Jezreel, and Ishma, and Idbash: and the name of their sister was Hazelelponi: And Penuel the father of Gedor, and Ezer the father of Hushah. These are the sons of Hur, the firstborn of Ephratah, the father of Bethlehem.” | 1 Chronicles 1: 1-4

I do not come into this pulpit hoping that perhaps somebody will of his own free will return to Christ.

My hope lies in another quarter.

I hope that my Master will lay hold of some of them and say, “You are mine, and you shall be mine. I claim you for myself.”

My hope arises from the freeness of grace, and not from the freedom of the will.

~ Charles H. Spurgeon

Click here to listen to the message “Blood Substitute Man”

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Visit our primary website at www.ksgctn.org for more information about Kingsport Sovereign Grace Church, watch our livestream (when available) and access our previously recorded messages.

Kingsport Sovereign Grace Church Bulletin Article date: 10 April, 2022 | Previous post date: n/a

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Thy Faith Hath Saved Thee

”And Jesus said unto him, Receive thy sight: thy faith hath saved thee.” | Luke 18: 42

We know that strictly speaking, it is not our faith that saved us.

Faith did not keep the law for me. Christ did!

Faith did not die on the cross for my sins. Christ did!

Faith was not raised from the dead, Christ was!

Yet the Lord says, “Thy faith hath saved thee.”

Why does the Saviour put this high honor on our faith? Because faith looks to Christ alone!

It rests in Him only, and looks nowhere else!

It gives all the honor of salvation to Christ!

A faith that does not do that is not saving faith to begin with.

Christ puts such honor on faith because true faith puts all honor on HIM!

~ Pastor Todd Nibert

Click here to listen to the message “The Sinner’s Prayer”

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Visit our primary website at www.ksgctn.org for more information about Kingsport Sovereign Grace Church, watch our livestream (when available) and access our previously recorded messages.

Kingsport Sovereign Grace Church Bulletin Article date: 8 April, 2018 | Previous post date: n/a

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The Just Shall Live By Faith

”And Isaac intreated the LORD for his wife, because she was barren: and the LORD was intreated of him, and Rebekah his wife conceived. And the children struggled together within her; and she said, If it be so, why am I thus? And she went to enquire of the LORD. And the LORD said unto her, Two nations are in thy womb, and two manner of people shall be separated from thy bowels; and the one people shall be stronger than the other people; and the elder shall serve the younger.” | Genesis 25: 21-23

The phrase the just shall live by faith is in the scriptures four times

“Behold, his soul which is lifted up is not upright in him: but the just shall live by his faith.” (Habakkuk 2: 4)

“For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith.” (Romans 1: 17)

“But that no man is justified by the law in the sight of God, it is evident: for, The just shall live by faith.” (Galatains 3: 11)

“Now the just shall live by faith: but if any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him.” (Hebrews 10: 38)

The just shall live by faith must be important since it is in scripture four times, but what does it mean? Three things immediately spring to mind.

First, the just shall live by faith means that a sinner is justified by the faithfulness OF Christ to obey the law as a man as the representative of His people and to make the sacrifice that puts away the sin of His people without any help from the sinner.

Second, the just shall live by faith means that a sinner is justified through faith IN Christ without any of our works contributing in any way. A sinner is justified by relying on the Lord Jesus Christ to do all the work it takes to justify them.

Thirdly, the just shall live by faith means that the justified ones live believing the Word of God. The justified ones believe everything the Word of God says. The justified ones believe every promise of God.

They do not try to live on what they think God might do.

They live relying upon what God says He WILL do in His Word.

~ Pastor Frank Tate

Click here to listen to the message “Election Must Be Preached”

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Visit our primary website at www.ksgctn.org for more information about Kingsport Sovereign Grace Church, watch our livestream (when available) and access our previously recorded messages.

Hurricane Road Grace Church Bulletin Article date: 18 April, 2021 | Previous post date: n/a | Cattletsburg, Kentucky

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I Am What I Am, By The Grace Of God

“For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:” | Ephesians 2: 8

Until we see our sin, we will never understand, love or be thankful for God’s sovereignty, His election or His finished work of salvation.

Men and women naturally reject God’s sovereignty because they do not want to be ruled by someone else. Mankind wants to rule himself.

Men and women naturally reject God’s election because they think that if God didn’t choose for them to be saved, it would be unfair and wrongful treatment to them.

Men and women naturally reject God’s finished work in salvation through the blood of Christ ALONE because they pridefully and self-righteously believe that they have something good in themselves that they can add to Christ’s work.

But after sinners truly see their sin, they LOVE God’s sovereignty, because they know that their own rule over themselves has only brought absolute ruin to them.

They LOVE God’s election, because they know that God’s unconditional election is the only hope that sinners like them could ever have of being saved. And they LOVE God’s finished work in salvation, because they know that there is NOTHING they could add to it but the deadness of their sin.

They know that if Christ doesn’t finish the work, it’s not going to be finished!

Men and women by nature hate everything about God… until God causes them to hate everything about themselves.

Once men and women truly hate what they sees in themselves, they will LOVE everything that they see in their merciful, loving, gracious Lord. At that moment, they all will confidently and humbly say: “I am what I am, by the grace of God.”

~ Pastor Gabe Stalnaker

Click here to listen to the message “Hope For A Cast Down Soul”

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Visit our primary website at www.ksgctn.org for more information about Kingsport Sovereign Grace Church, watch our livestream (when available) and access our previously recorded messages.

Kingsport Sovereign Grace Church Bulletin Article date: 23 August, 2020 | Previous post date: 26 May, 2021

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Holy Ground

”Be glad in the LORD, and rejoice, ye righteous: and shout for joy, all ye that are upright in heart.” | Psalm 32: 11

I have been reading a history of the year 1776 in the American Colonies.

After the British had left Boston, George Washington expected they were heading for New York. Therefore, Washington moved a contingent of the Colonial Army there in order to defend the city. One gentleman, Lieutenant Isaac Bangs, sought as much information about the city as he could discover. In order to investigate the seedier side of New York City, Bangs went to a place called the Holy Ground.

It was a foul slum in which every debauchery imaginable could be indulged. It was called “The Holy Ground” because a great deal of it was owned by the local church. It was commented that, “If there was trouble after dark in New York, it was nearly always in the Holy Ground… Less than a week after the continental army moved into the city, all hell erupted in the Holy Ground.”

My first thought was, “Isn’t that the way it always is with things that man calls holy.”

I have yet to know of a church where “holiness” was the primary focus that such holiness did not just prove a thin veneer over all manner of evil. Let a church lay claim to a place and call it holy; it will not be long until the place will be known for great wickedness.

Once again it is proven that the things which are highly esteemed among men are an abomination to God.

The Bible calls some things holy.

God is Holy. “Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord God Almighty. The whole earth is filled with His glory.” He is set apart from all His creation as the one God over all.

Jesus Christ is Holy: “So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God.”

“You are the Holy One of God.”

He is set apart from the rest of humanity as the only one essentially born of God and having a Divine nature and the one chosen of God to save His people.

And God’s church is Holy.

Her members are called “saints” which is from the same Greek word as “holy.”

The church, herself, has not designated herself to be holy: “Holy” is what God has called her.

She recognizes that the term “holy” does not describe some virtuous character about her but signifies that she has been chosen, redeemed and called by God; set apart from the reprobate, condemned and dead world. She has been set apart by God, to God and for God. She is no better than the rest of the world, just greatly privileged.

In these holy things, there is goodness, purity, and decency.

~ Pastor Joe Terrell

Click here to listen to the message “Rejoice Ye Righteous”

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Visit our primary website at www.ksgctn.org for more information about Kingsport Sovereign Grace Church, watch our livestream (when available) and access our previously recorded messages.

FreeGraceRadio.com Bulletin Article date: 7 January, 2008 | Previous post date: n/a | Danville, Kentuky

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Beggars With Glorious News

”Then they said one to another, We do not well: this day is a day of good tidings, and we hold our peace: if we tarry till the morning light, some mischief will come upon us: now therefore come, that we may go and tell the king’s household.” | 2 Kings 7: 9

Three little robins sit in their nest right above my back garage door.

They sit there day after day in absolute helpless dependency.

If mama robin does not bring food and put it into their mouths, they will soon die.

They seem to be always hungry, and whenever mom approaches they open their mouths wide, trying to get all the food they can.

I would to God that we, as believers, could be as those little robins when it comes to spiritual food, the “Bread of Life” – “Jesus Christ and Him crucified for guilty sinners;” when it comes to reading or hearing the Word of God; that we could always do so with such eagerness and hunger.

“Break Thou the bread of life, Dear Lord to me / As Thou didst break the loaves, Beside the sea / Beyond the sacred page, I seek Thee, Lord / My spirit pants for Thee, O living Word.”

Unbeliever, your helpless dependency is as great as those little robins in their nest.

If God does not cause you to hunger and bring you food, you will soon die… die in your sins!

If God does not open your heart to hunger and thirst after Christ and to receive Him as He is; to submit to Him, to love Him, to cleave to Him as your most prized possession, your doom is inevitable!

Perhaps the Lord has already caused you to hunger after Christ and life.

Perhaps you truly desire salvation from sin. “He hath filled the hungry with good things; and the rich he hath sent empty away.” (Luke 1: 53)

What wonderful news for hungry sinners!

Believe!

Believe on Christ!

Believe on Christ now!

He that believeth shall be saved.

~ Pastor Maurice Montgomery

Click here to listen to the message “Beggars With Glorious News”

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Visit our primary website at www.ksgctn.org for more information about Kingsport Sovereign Grace Church, watch our livestream (when available) and access our previously recorded messages.

Kingsport Sovereign Grace Church Bulletin Article date: 10 April, 2022 | Previous post date: n/a

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The Trial And Proof Of Faith

”Wash me throughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. For I acknowledge my transgressions: and my sin is ever before me. Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight: that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest, and be clear when thou judgest. Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me. Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward parts: and in the hidden part thou shalt make me to know wisdom.” | Psalm 51: 2-6

It is a blessing to experience those times when all seems well and faith comes easily, when it seems the very air is filled with the presence of the Lord.

Such times are a blessing, but they are no proof of true faith.

Faith is proven when it endures the HARD times.

When the heart is broken, the mind confused, and the body weak, then is faith put to the test and proven whether it be genuine.

When faith survives those times when there is NO FEELING to verify it, NO EVIDENCE to confirm it, and NO FLESHY ENERGY to sustain it, then and only then can we discover that we have that faith that is “the gift of God”, God’s gifts are “without repentance”, and this is as true of faith as any of His other gifts.
We know we have believed when we never repent of our faith, but believe in the very face of all that is opposed to faith.

This is the trial and proof of faith.

~ Pastor Joe Terrell

Click here to listen to the message “Repentance and Faith”

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Visit our primary website at www.ksgctn.org for more information about Kingsport Sovereign Grace Church, watch our livestream (when available) and access our previously recorded messages.

Kingsport Sovereign Grace Church Bulletin Article date: 8 April, 2018 | Previous post date: n/a