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The Word Of God

”The prophet that hath a dream, let him tell a dream; and he that hath my word, let him speak my word faithfully. What is the chaff to the wheat? saith the LORD.” | Jeremiah 23: 28

It is certain that the Lord is speaking of false prophets who do not know God’s word nor use it, but rather tell their dreams and entertain with miracles, signs, and wonders.

But I am afraid this word also has some reference to believers as well, particularly preachers.

God’s word is His power.

His word is what He uses to call, break, save, create, sustain, keep, feed, mold, and shape His people.

One word of God is of infinite power and value.

The Holy Spirit can take one word and bring about what a multitude of ours cannot.

One word, such as LOOK!

One line, such as THE JUST SHALL LIVE BY FAITH, is sufficient, by the power of the Spirit, to bring a dead sinner to life.

It is not our comments upon God’s word, but God’s actual word that He uses.

PREACHING IS VITAL, whereby the sense of the word is given; but in reality IT IS NOT THE PREACHING THAT SAVES, BUT THE WORD!

When we witness to others, it is good to tell what we have learned; but when all is said and done, nothing will impress that person except the word of God applied by His Spirit.

This is why a word in season means a portion of God’s word.

Perhaps we would do well to say less and quote more from God’s word.

Even better, it would be good to just leave someone with a portion from, God’s word and say, “Go and learn what that means.”

~ Pastor Paul Mahan

Click here to listen to the message “Turning God’s Glory Into Shame” (14:03 minutes)

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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.

Zebulon Grace Church Bulletin Article date: 8 April, 2007 | Previous post date: n/a | Pikeville, Kentucky

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On The Death of Christ

“Now when Mephibosheth, the son of Jonathan, the son of Saul, was come unto David, he fell on his face, and did reverence. And David said, Mephibosheth. And he answered, Behold thy servant! And David said unto him, Fear not: for I will surely shew thee kindness for Jonathan thy father’s sake, and will restore thee all the land of Saul thy father; and thou shalt eat bread at my table continually.” | 2 Samuel 9: 6-7

Christ did not die to win our sympathy, nor did He die to win our friendship.

He died so that a holy God could save our souls.

He died so that “GOD COULD BE JUST AND THE JUSTIFIER OF THE UNGODLY.”

His death is not a PATTERN but a PAYMENT.

His death is not an EXAMPLE, but an ATONEMENT.

His death does not REVIVE US, but it REDEEMS US.

If you are not saved, it is not because His blood is not sufficient nor does not have the power to save, but because you reject this remedy.

God will not pardon without satisfaction by the blood of Christ.

If you ever see this “Fountain opened,” you will cry with the woman of Samaria, “Give me this water, that I thirst no more.”

~ Pastor Milton Howard

Click here to listen to the message “Looking, Waiting, Expecting” (47:08 minutes)

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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: 16 April, 2012 | Previous post date: 28 July, 2021 | Danville, Kentucky

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Preaching

”And I was with you in weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling.” | 1 Corinthians 2: 3

C. H. Spurgeon is called by many “The Prince of Preachers”.

Spurgeon wrote, “For many years my own preaching was exceedingly painful to me, because of the fear and trembling which beset me before entering the pulpit. Often, the dread of facing my hearers has been overwhelming.

“I wrote to my dear grandfather, who was a minister of God for many years, and told him of the overwhelming mental emotions, sickness of body, and trembling fears which gripped my heart when I preached the Word of God.”

The old gentleman wrote back, “My son, I have been preaching the gospel of Christ sixty years, and I still feel the same trembling fears that you feel. Be content to have it so. When these emotions go away, your strength will also be gone. When you are able to preach the gospel and think nothing of it, the people will think nothing of it, and God will do nothing with it.”

~ Pastor Henry Mahan

Click here to listen to the message “Delivered From the Fear of Death” (39:10 minutes)

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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.

Zebulon Grace Church Bulletin Article date: 8 April, 2007 | Previous post date: n/a | Pikeville, Kentucky

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One Pressing Question

“Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.” | Matthew 7: 13-14

Every time I get into a discussion with a person over the differences in our faith it inevitably comes down to the same question; “What is the gospel?”

In short, the gospel is a Person.

The content of our faith is completely tied to the True Person and True Work of the Lord Jesus Christ; who He is and what He did is everything in the gospel. The Word of God is our only source of light and truth in answering this most pressing question. “Sanctify them through thy truth, thy word is truth.” (John 17: 17) God’s word is a revelation of the person and work of Christ. However, using biblical terms to answer these questions is not sufficient IF one is guilty of changing the meaning of those terms.

Truth is, if words have meaning, and they do, God’s word must be believed for what it means.

To say I believe all men are sinners because the bible says so, and then give those same men the ability to accept Christ by their own free will, is to deny what a sinner is.

To say I believe that Jesus is the Christ because the bible says so, but then to deny His success in accomplishing the full salvation of all Israel is to change the title Christ to ‘christ wannabe’.

To say I believe that Christ kept the law of God perfectly because the bible says so, and then to use that same law as a standard to prove men’s salvation, is to deny that Christ is in fact the end of the law for righteousness.

To say I believe salvation is of grace and not of works and then to make the accomplished work of Christ contingent on something I do, is to change grace to works.

To say I believe Christ raised from the dead because the bible says so, and then to suggest in any way that there is something left for us to do in order to secure our salvation, is to change the glorious truth of the resurrection from a declaration of Divine satisfaction to a mere historical event.

We could go on to every precious truth declared in God’s word about the Lord Jesus Christ. Only when Christ is preached according to the scriptures does the gospel become the power of God unto salvation.
God has never used a false prophet’s preaching to effect the salvation of one of His children.

Satan is a counterfeiter by nature. The Lord said he was a ‘wolf in sheep’s clothing’, an ‘angel of light’ a ‘minister of righteousness’. We ought not be surprised that he would use God’s word to spread his lies. All he has to do is change it’s meaning a little. A little leaven leaveneth the whole loaf.

Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees. It destroys the gospel.

~ Pastor Greg Elmquist

Click here to listen to the message “Speak Every Man Truth” (44:49 minutes)

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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: 15 June, 2014 | Previous post date: 25 July, 2021 | Ewing, New Jersey

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The Word

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.” | John 1: 1-3

Look at this name and title John gives to the Lord Jesus again — “The Word”.

“In the beginning was the Word.”

That is a statement so full of meaning that I have no hope of expounding it.

Christ is called the Word because he is the Wisdom of God.

He is called the Word because he is the Person spoken of in all the Old Testament prophecies and the sum of all the promises.

Our Redeemer is called the Word because he is the Speaker, the Revealer and the Interpreter of the Father’s will.

And he is called the Word because he is the Image of the invisible God, the Offspring of the Father’s mind, the Express Image of his Person, just as our words (if honestly spoken) are the express image of our minds.

~ Pastor Don Fortner

Click here to listen to the message “Chosen, Sanctified, Redeemed, Blessed” (46:48 minutes)

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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: 23 March, 2008 | Previous post date: n/a | Danville, Kentuky

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Record In Heaven

“For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one.” | 1 John 5: 7

Christ, the Word, is one of the Holy Three-in-One that bear record in heaven.

Bear record of what?

That Jesus is the Son of God?

No.

Heaven needs no evidence of that!

These three bear record in heaven that God has given us eternal life, in strict accordance with his just and righteous law, by the merits of Christ’s obedience and death as our Substitute.

“O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death? I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin.” (Romans 7: 24-25)

The three Persons of the Holy Trinity bear record in heaven that Christ has accomplished redemption for God’s elect by his blood atonement. — “There are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one.”

“Which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and stedfast, and which entereth into that within the veil; Whither the forerunner is for us entered, even Jesus, made an high priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec.” (Hebrews 6: 19-20)

God the Father bears record that redemption is accomplished by his acceptance of Christ as our Representative and Surety. “And every priest standeth daily ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins: But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the right hand of God; From henceforth expecting till his enemies be made his footstool. For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified.” (Hebrews 10: 11-14)

“God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds; Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high; Being made so much better than the angels, as he hath by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they. For unto which of the angels said he at any time, Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee? And again, I will be to him a Father, and he shall be to me a Son? And again, when he bringeth in the firstbegotten into the world, he saith, And let all the angels of God worship him. And of the angels he saith, Who maketh his angels spirits, and his ministers a flame of fire. But unto the Son he saith, Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever: a sceptre of righteousness is the sceptre of thy kingdom. Thou hast loved righteousness, and hated iniquity; therefore God, even thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows.” (Hebrews 1: 1-9)

When the Father raised Christ from the dead and received him back into heaven as our Mediator, he accepted all his elect in Christ and bare record that redemption’s work was done. “To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved.” (Ephesians 1: 6)

“These words spake Jesus, and lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, Father, the hour is come; glorify thy Son, that thy Son also may glorify thee: As thou hast given him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him. And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent. I have glorified thee on the earth: I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do. And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was.” (John 17: 1-5)

God the Son, the living, eternal Word, the second person of the blessed Trinity, bears record of his people’s right to eternal life by his perpetual advocacy and intercession at the Father’s right hand. “Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us.” (Romans 8: 34)

“My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous: And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.” (1 John 2: 1-2)

The record he bears, which secures the eternal salvation of God’s elect, by which we merit heaven and eternal life, is twofold: — His righteousness as our Representative and his satisfaction as our Substitute.

“Whither the forerunner is for us entered, even Jesus, made an high priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec.” (Hebrews 6: 20)

God the Holy Spirit, the third person of the holy Trinity, bears record of the accomplishment of redemption, by effectually applying the blood of Christ to the hearts of God’s elect in effectual calling. “He shall glorify me: for he shall receive of mine, and shall shew it unto you.” (John 16: 14)

“For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh: How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?” (Hebrews 9: 13-14)

The Spirit of God takes the merit of Christ’s blood and righteousness and reveals our acceptance with God to us by the gospel.

In effectual calling chosen, redeemed sinners hear the gospel.

But they hear more than the bare word of the gospel.

They hear the Spirit of God speak in their hearts!

Each one hears God speak pardon to his own soul by the gospel of his salvation. “In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise,” (Ephesians 1: 13)

“Wherefore henceforth know we no man after the flesh: yea, though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we him no more.” (2 Corinthians 5: 16)

This is the record of heaven. The Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit point to the blood and righteousness of Christ and say, “It is finished! Redemption is accomplished!”

“And these three are one.” — The three Divine Persons are one God.

But more, the record of the Father, the record of the Word, and the record of the Spirit are one.

What is that record?

Redemption is accomplished by Christ alone!

Every chosen sinner has the right to enter into heaven by the blood gate, through the merits of Christ. — “God hath given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son.”

~ Pastor Don Fortner

Click here to listen to the message “What Will It Take To Bring You To Christ?” (46:38 minutes)

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

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Not Eloquent, Why?

“And Moses said unto the LORD, O my Lord, I am not eloquent, neither heretofore, nor since thou hast spoken unto thy servant: but I am slow of speech, and of a slow tongue. And the LORD said unto him, Who hath made man’s mouth? or who maketh the dumb, or deaf, or the seeing, or the blind? have not I the LORD?” | Exodus 4: 10-11

The LORD made Moses slow of speech.

Think of all God had given Moses since birth: he delivered Moses out of the river, raised Moses in Pharaoh’s house, directed his steps to where he was now, and gave him all these sure promises.

The LORD could have given Moses eloquence but he did not. Why?

The glory in delivering his people is the Lord’s. “This is the word of the LORD… Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the LORD of hosts.” (Zechariah 4: 6)

~ Pastor Clay Curtis

Click here to listen to the message “Success Of The Gospel” (40:30 minutes)

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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: 15 June, 2014 | Previous post date: 21 July, 2021 | Ewing, New Jersey

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Deity Expressing Itself

“No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him.” | John 1: 18

A word is an expression, a means of manifestation, communication and revelation.

Christ manifests the invisible God, communicates the love, mercy and grace of God, and reveals the attributes and perfections of God.

The Word of God, then, is Deity expressing itself.

Therefore Christ is called the Word of God.

“God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds; Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high; Being made so much better than the angels, as he hath by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they.” (Hebrews 1: 1-4)

In Revelation 1: 8 our Savior declares himself to be God’s alphabet: “I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty.”

Christ is the Word in and by whom the triune God makes himself known to men, the personal enunciation of Jehovah. — “No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him”.

~ Pastor Don Fortner

Click here to listen to the message “In Hope of the Resurrection” (44:46 minutes)

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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: 23 March, 2008 | Previous post date: n/a | Danville, Kentuky

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The Eternal Christ

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life; and the life was the light of men. And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.” | John 1: 1

John calls our Lord Jesus Christ “the Word.”

This is a term used in the New Testament almost exclusively by John, identifying Christ as one who is God, and yet a distinct Person from the Father.

I can think of only two places in which other inspired writers used this term in the New Testament with reference to our Savior.

“For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight: but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do.” (Hebrews 4: 12-13)

“For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water:” (2 Peter 3: 5)

Our light the Lord Jesus Christ shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehends Him not.

~ Pastor Don Fortner

Click here to listen to the message “The Eternal Christ” (48:11 minutes)

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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: 23 March, 2008 | Previous post date: n/a | Danville, Kentuky

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Have We Learned Christ?

“But ye have not so learned Christ; If so be that ye have heard him, and have been taught by him, as the truth is in Jesus:” | Ephesians 4: 20-21

The believer is a person who has undergone and is undergoing a divine work of grace within.

This work began and continues by the hearing of the gospel of Jesus Christ. In verse 21, of our text, plainly states, “if so be that ye have heard him, and have been taught by him, as the truth is in Jesus.” This hearing is not the common hearing of men but the hearing of the gospel in power and in demonstration of the Holy Spirit.

In 1 Corinthians 2: 4, where this is stated, the word demonstration means an inward manifestation of the gospel. God, the Holy Spirit, demonstrates the mercy and grace of Christ within the hearing sinner and he is sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise. (Ephesians 1: 13) Those who truly hear know that both the messenger and his message is from the Lord. John said, “we are of God; he that knoweth God heareth us; he that is not of God heareth not us. Hereby, know we the spirit of truth, and the spirit of error.” (1 John 4: 6)

All those who hear the gospel, in power, are born of God and given the ability, the right, and the privilege to become sons of God. (John 1: 12-13) They have, by the gracious gift of the Father, been “made meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light.” (Colossians 1: 12) Those who truly hear, keep on hearing, and never lose their appetite for the gospel.

In Hebrews 10: 39, Paul says, “we are not of them who draw back unto perdition; but of them that believe to the saving of the soul.”

The believer is a person who has undergone a divine transformation; a divine work of grace within. He is not what he was and not yet what he hopes to be, but is what he is by the grace of God; a new creature in Christ Jesus. “For we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that he should walk in them.” (Ephesians 2: 8-10)

The believer is rather like a woman shopping who sees a garment and thinks to herself how good she would look with it on. So she finds a way to get it. Believers do not continue to walk in the vanity of their minds but have seen with spiritual eyes the beauty and majesty of Christ.

“Put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ and make provision for the flesh.” (Romans 13: 14)


Apart from this inward work of grace all else is folly.

~ Pastor Darvin Pruitt

Click here to listen to the message “How Can You Believe?” (36:16 minutes)

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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: 15 June, 2014 | Previous post date: 18 July, 2021 | Ewing, New Jersey