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Who Can Tame the Tongue?

“The tongue can no man tame; it is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison.” | James 3: 8

Obviously no man can tame the tongue.

I have tried to tame mine, and out come words of criticism, hurt, and self-justification.

But God can and does tame the tongue.

I cannot tame my tongue, but I want it to be tamed by the grace of God!

Lord, tame my tongue, so that the words that come out my mouth are true, gracious, kind, and encouraging.

Somebody once said that everything that passes through our lips ought to go through these three checkpoints:
1) Is it true?
2) Is it necessary to say? and
3) Is it kind?

When, by the grace of God, our words go through those three checkpoints, we are speaking with a tamed tongue.

Tamed by the grace of God.

~ Pastor Todd Nibert

Click here to listen to the message “The Tongue”

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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: 5 September, 2008 | Previous post date: n/a | Danville, Kentuky

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Dealing With Sin

“And Peter remembered the word of Jesus, which said unto him, Before the cock crow, thou shalt deny me thrice. And he went out, and wept bitterly.” | Matthew 26: 75

How different from us does Christ deal with sin!

I would venture to say that Peter would never have been allowed to preach had we been in the Lord’s place. Or if he had, our confrontation with Peter would likely have made Peter unwilling to preach.

There is no question that this confrontation with Peter was because of Peter’s denial. But it is interesting to note that the Lord never once mentioned Peter’s denial. He did not ask Peter to rehearse his crime. Neither did the Lord require Peter to resolve to do better. Peter’s resolve had not helped him before and it would not likely help him later. Nor do we find our Lord laying out a plan of action for Peter so that he will not fail in the future.

Our Lord went straight to the heart of it with a simple question, “Peter, do you love me?”

With that question asked three times, our Lord forgave Peter’s sin, cleared his conscience, fit him for service and revealed to us the strongest resistance to sin.

I would be willing to bet that every time after that when Peter was tempted to deny the Lord for fear, he remembered the Master’s question, “Peter do you love me.”

No whip of law or fear of punishment, just simple love.

~ Pastor John Chapman

Click here to listen to the message “Peter Denies Knowing Christ”

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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: 4 September, 2008 | Previous post date: n/a | Danville, Kentuky

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CONCERNING SPIRITUAL GIFTS

”Now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I would not have you ignorant. Ye know that ye were Gentiles, carried away unto these dumb idols, even as ye were led. Wherefore I give you to understand, that no man speaking by the Spirit of God calleth Jesus accursed: and that no man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost. Now there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit. And there are differences of administrations, but the same Lord. And there are diversities of operations, but it is the same God which worketh all in all. But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal. For to one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom; to another the word of knowledge by the same Spirit; To another faith by the same Spirit; to another the gifts of healing by the same Spirit; To another the working of miracles; to another prophecy; to another discerning of spirits; to another divers kinds of tongues; to another the interpretation of tongues: But all these worketh that one and the selfsame Spirit, dividing to every man severally as he will.” | 1 Corinthians 12: 1-11

Those who are chosen by God’s grace, redeemed by the blood of Jesus Christ and quickened and made alive by the Holy Spirit have no reason to boast of any personal achievement.

The apostle Paul uses this powerful phrase, “no man” two times in one verse to exclude any from exalting the deeds of the flesh. We were ignorant Gentiles, carried away unto dumb and dead idols, until the grace of God set us free in Jesus Christ our Lord. (Ephesians 2: 11-13)

Consider these three statements:

All that every believer knows; God, in His mercy taught us! The gospel of God’s grace and glory is not something that the natural and carnal mind reasons out. The gospel must be revealed by the Holy Spirit. Salvation is not by education, but rather by revelation. The world by wisdom does not know God. (1 Corinthians 1: 21) God, the Holy Spirit must take the things concerning Jesus Christ and shew them unto us, or we will never understand the true gospel. “Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit” (1 Corinthians 2: 9-10)

All that every believer has; God, in His love gave us! There is not a single spiritual blessing that the believer enjoys that has not been freely given to us. (1 Corinthians 1: 30) We are justified freely by His grace. (Romans 3: 24) God has loved His people freely in Christ Jesus before the foundation of the world. (Hosea 14: 4) Although all the spiritual blessings are freely given to us, they came at a great price to our Lord. He fully paid our sin debt with a great price, His own blood. (Acts 20: 28) “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?” (Romans 8: 32)

All that we are; God, in His grace made us! By nature we are born in sin and shapen in iniquity. (Psalm 51: 5) By His grace we have been made trophies of His love and mercy. (Ephesians 2: 4-8) Every believer can truly say with the apostle Paul, “by the grace of God I am what I am” (1 Corinthians 15: 10) We are saved from our sin by His grace. (Romans 4: 16) We are redeemed from the curse of the Law through Christ Jesus. (Galatians 3: 13)

Therefore every believer can rightly boast of what God has done for us through our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

Salvation is all of God’s grace, all in Christ Jesus and all for His glory.

We say with the apostle, “God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ” (Galatians 6: 14)

~ Pastor Tom Harding

Click here to listen to the message “Salvation Is Of The Lord”

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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: 3 September, 2008 | Previous post date: n/a | Danville, Kentuky

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He Has Made Him Sin

”For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.” | 2 Corinthians 5: 21

The Lord Jesus being made sin for us must extend beyond the idea of the imputation of our sin to Him.

We would never be made the righteousness of God in Christ as a result of His being merely charged with our sin. No, He must also suffer for those sins. He must not merely bear our sins, but must bear them on the tree of curse and punishment. To bear the sins of someone else and suffer in their place is the very definition of a sin offering, so we understand Paul to mean that the sinless Christ was made a sin offering for sinful us. Paul’s words are essentially the same as the prophet Isaiah in 53: 10 of his prophecy, “…you shall make his soul an offering for sin.”

In the original Hebrew the word “offering” does not appear, for, in the language of the old testament, the word for sin and the word for the offering to put it away are one and the same.

Nor is our being made the righteousness of God in Christ merely an act of imputation.

In the case of our being “made” the righteousness of God, the word signifies a change in the very essence of a thing. In being made a sin offering, Christ’s status before God was changed, as the word signifies; but His essence remained unchanged. But, in being made the righteousness of God, our very essence is changed.

Christ’s sacrificial death did not make us the righteousness of God in Him, but opened the door to the other works of God’s grace which do, indeed, make us the righteousness of God.

Christ’s work for us made possible God’s work in us.

Thus, beginning with the New Birth and finishing with our glorification to be like Christ, we are quite literally made into something different from what we were at our natural birth: our nature is changed by God.

When in glory, we shall not be righteous only by a legal act of imputation, but we shall be essentially righteous, even as the Lord Jesus Christ is righteous. And even now, the born again child of God possesses a new nature called spirit – the restored image of God – which is flawless in every respect. It is the beginning of the New Creation and bears the image of the One Who made it. It is incapable of sinning, for it is the offspring of its Perfect Creator.

The child of God – who still finds no good thing in his flesh – is yet flawless in his spirit; and in those things the spirit does, he acts without sin.

~ Pastor Joe Terrell

Click here to listen to the message “The Judgment Seat of Christ”

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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: 3 September, 2008 | Previous post date: n/a | Danville, Kentuky

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OUR REDEEMER

”As for our Redeemer, the LORD of hosts is His name, the Holy One of Israel” | Isaiah 47: 4

We often use the terms “particular redemption” and “limited atonement” as we preach the gospel of Christ.

If we indeed use these terms scripturally we are saying, all for whom Christ died shall be saved, no more – no less. The word of God sets forth this grand and glorious truth from beginning to end.

However, living faith, the faith that God Almighty gives in regeneration is not in this doctrinal point, or in any doctrinal point. Saving faith has for it’s Object the Redeemer, rather than any work that He wrought.

There is a difference.

The Bible does not say, “Believe in particular redemption and thou shalt be saved”. The Bible says, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved”. We often hear folks say, “I came to the doctrines of grace”. Our redeemer said, “Come unto me”.

What I am saying is this, the Lord Jesus Christ alone is our redeemer.

In him alone is all truth revealed.

We trust the one who redeemed, he who made eternal redemption efficacious.

Those who know Christ, believe on Christ, look to Christ and trust Christ for all their salvation, believe he accomplished eternal redemption for them and all for whom he died.

But, as for our Redeemer, the Lord of hosts is his name, the Holy One of Israel.

We labour to preach Christ and all truth in Him. It is he that adorns all truth with his glorious Person. We desire to point sinners to Christ, in whom alone is life.

I fear that many may find a false security ( as once I did ) in having arrived at and giving mental accent to some doctrinal truth rather than having a living faith in a living person, the Lord Jesus Christ.

I realize that some will disagree with me and say I am confusing the issue. However, salvation is not in what we know and believe, salvation is in “the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world”.

As for me there is no argument or debate, Christ Jesus is my Redeemer – “For I know that my Redeemer liveth, and that He shall stand at the latter day upon the earth” (Job 19: 25)

~ Pastor Tommy Robbins

Click here to listen to the message “The Exaltation of Christ”

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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: 1 September, 2008 | Previous post date: n/a | Danville, Kentuky

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IN CHRIST HIMSELF

“That in the dispensation of the fulness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even in him: in whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will:” | Ephesians 1: 10-11

The Holy Spirit does not reach after something novel, new, nor spectacular in order to glorify Christ or to preach Christ to men.

He does not need tongues, fleshly emotion, bodily healings, and creature fame and importance in order to bring glory to Christ and call out His sheep.

He finds Christ’s glory IN CHRIST HIMSELF!

If we want to honor Christ, glorify Christ, and preach Christ, we must not look for something outside of Christ; but we must honor Him by preaching that which is His already – His deity, His person, His man-hood, His life, His death, His resurrection, His ascension, His intercession, His return!

~ Pastor Henry Mahan

Click here to listen to the message “The Collected Ones!”

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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.

Sovereign Grace Baptist Church Bulletin Article date: 7 September, 2008 | Previous post date: n/a | Ewing, New Jersey

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The Righteousness of Faith

“For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth.” | Romans 10: 4

If all our works were perfect and we expected salvation thereby, we would still be living in total unbelief, because the end of every precept of God’s holy law is that we believe on his precious Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.

~ Pastor Clay Curtis

Click here to listen to the message “The Righteousness of 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.

Sovereign Grace Baptist Church Bulletin Article date: 7 September, 2008 | Previous post date: n/a | Ewing, New Jersey

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Spiritual Plenty in Temporal Famine

“Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Moses gave you not that bread from heaven; but my Father giveth you the true bread from heaven.” | John 6: 32

The error of the Jews here should be a warning to us.

They thought Moses gave them the manna. But it was God and not Moses. He was only the humble instrument. They ought to have looked through the instrument to God. But the eye rested, where it is ever so prone to rest–on the human medium.

The Lord here leads them to look beyond the human instrument to God–“Moses gave you not that bread… but my Father,”

O what creatures of sense we are.

We live so much in the outward and visible, as almost to forget there is anything beyond. All that we gaze upon here is but the avenue to what eye hath not seen, nor ear heard…

Thus should we ever look through nature, to nature’s God.

Thus shall we enjoy God’s gifts, when they lead us up to Him; and then shall we not make idols of them, and so run the risk of their removal.

Everything in nature and providence is but the “Moses” between us and God. Let us not be like the Jews of old, so taken up with Moses as to forget the “greater than Moses,” from whence they all proceed.

~ A.W. Pink

Click here to listen to the message “Spiritual Plenty in Temporal Famine”

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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.

Sovereign Grace Baptist Church Bulletin Article date: 7 September, 2008 | Previous post date: n/a | Ewing, New Jersey

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IS THE LAW SIN?

“For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace. What then? shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid.” | Romans 6: 14-15

If I measure a crooked wall with a perfect plumb line, it reveals the crookedness of the wall, but does not remove it.

If I take out a bright light on a dark night, it reveals to me all the pitfalls and hindrances, but it does not remove them.

Now the plumb line and the lamp do not create the evils which they point out. They neither create nor remove, but simply reveal.

So it is with the law.

It does not create the evil in man’s heart; neither does it remove it. But with unerring accuracy, it reveals it.

What shall we say then?

Is the law sin? God forbid!

~ Pastor Scott Richardson

Click here to listen to the message “Reckon Yourselves To Be Dead To Sin”

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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.

Sovereign Grace Baptist Church Bulletin Article date: 7 September, 2008 | Previous post date: n/a | Ewing, New Jersey

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THE WORK OF GOD

“Then said they unto him, What shall we do, that we might work the works of God? Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent.” | John 6: 28-29

Notice that they asked about the “works of God.”

The depraved sinner thinks God requires many and great “works” to be done on the part of the sinner.

The taller the works, the wider the works, the more demanding the works, and the sinner will go after them with both hands.

But when told that God is not looking to the sinner’s many wonderful works, but that this is “the work of God” — to believe on him whom he hath sent – the sinner finds that to believe on Christ, and part with his own self-righteousness, is entirely beyond his ability to perform.

~ Pastor Clay Curtis

Click here to listen to the message “What Works Should We Do?”

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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.

Sovereign Grace Baptist Church Bulletin Article date: 7 September, 2008 | Previous post date: n/a | Ewing, New Jersey