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The Simplicity of Christ, A Resting Place

”Then said I, Lo, I come (in the volume of the book it is written of me,) to do thy will, O God.” | Hebrews 10: 7

There is, in the simplicity of Christ, a resting place for the weary soul, a place of calm in the tempest.

In the press of life we can lay our burdens at the feet of Him who rules all things. In the grievous experience of our own failures, we can find comfort in Him Who cannot fail.

But I find in the simplicity of Christ another area of rest which I so greatly cherish.

Often, I struggle to understand the things of God. In particular, I feel this struggle when I engage with those who deny some aspect of the gospel.

Often I have read or heard of some theory of this or that doctrine and have immediately recognized it as false. But when I engage to refute it, I am overwhelmed with the complexity which the enemy inserts into the debate. It seems there are always more questions than I can answer. I get confused. It is then that I find such comfort and rest in the simplicity of Christ.

I may not know WHAT all the answers are, but I know WHERE they are; and I rest in the knowledge that God will reveal what I need to know when I need to know it, and the knowledge He reveals will always be found with in that category of “the simplicity of Christ.”

Therefore, I can walk happily in the light I have and likewise leave others to walk in the light they have.

I can cease from fretting over how well I am doing in the battle knowing that “the battle is the Lord’s,” and not mine.

~ Pastor Joe Terrell

Click here to listen to the message “The Reason for Jesus”

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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: 12 October, 2007 | Previous post date: n/a | Danville, Kentuky

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The Greatest Privilege in All The World

“If ye have heard of the dispensation of the grace of God which is given me to you-ward: How that by revelation he made known unto me the mystery; (as I wrote afore in few words, Whereby, when ye read, ye may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ)” | Ephesians 3: 2-4

BRETHREN, as redeemed sinners, we have the greatest privilege in all the world: to be counted among the people of God and gather with them to worship our God and Savior, Jesus Christ.

As enlightened sinners we have the greatest work to do: make known in this world the glories of the Savior who has saved us.

As children of God, we have the most glorious destiny in all the world: to be made like the Lord Jesus Christ. In light of these things, do not the troubles and disappointments of this life become small?

O, let us, with sincere hearts, press on to lay hold of the wonderful salvation for which God has laid hold of us, letting nothing distract us from the goal.

We will never regret the loss of anything which is lost for the sake of Christ. But, O, the regrets of the Esau’s of the world who for comfort, riches, worldly success, self-vindication, or anything else, draw back from their dedication to Christ and His gospel.

Brethren, at all costs, press on!

The end is glorious to those who persevere!

~ Pastor Joseph Terrell

Click here to listen to the message “The Unsearchable Riches 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.

Central Grace Church Bulletin Article date: 26 December, 2021 | Previous post date: n/a | Rocky Mount, Virginia

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The True Grace of God

“Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time: Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you.” | 1 Peter 5: 6-7

When things spin out of our control, when well-laid plans, indeed, go awry, when carefully crafted back-up plans blow up in our faces, and all that we had expected to happen vaporizes into what actually happens, we are reminded that it is God’s will and not ours that shall be done, and we are humbled into our proper place and God is exalted to His proper place. “Our God is in the heavens, He has done whatsoever pleased Him.”

And that is good.

~ Pastor Joe Terrell

Click here to listen to the message “The True Grace of 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: 13 September, 2020 | Previous post date: 2 March, 2021

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If You Be Circumcised

”Behold, I Paul say unto you, that if ye be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing.” | Galatians 5: 2

It is a man’s guilt that makes Christ necessary for Him; but it is a man’s righteousness that will render Christ ineffective for him.

The blood of Christ is the remedy for a man’s sin, but what shall avail for a remedy for a man’s righteousness? Only the sovereign work of the Holy Spirit of God is able to overcome a man’s resistance to the grace of the blood and to make him despair of even his righteousness.

But, to refine the point even more, it is the Holy Spirit’s work in revealing the testimony of the blood of Christ that breaks the self-righteous will of man and makes him submit to Christ as his only righteousness before God.

So it is the blood poured out by Christ that remedies the sin of a man, and it is that same blood revealed by the Holy Spirit that remedies the righteousness of man.

~ Pastor Joe Terrell

Click here to listen to the message “The Testimony of the Blood”

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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: 6 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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Two Questions: Two Religions

“For they being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth.” | Romans 10: 3-4

Sooner could the ocean prove too little for a small fish or the sky be too small for a swallow than the grace of God prove insufficient for one of God’s people.

Not all their weaknesses, failures or sins can use it up.

~ Pastor Joe Terrell

Click here to listen to the message “Whosoever Believeth On Him”

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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: 11 July, 2021 | Previous post date: n/a

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The Grace of God is Sufficient

“But I would ye should understand, brethren, that the things [which happened] unto me have fallen out rather unto the furtherance of the gospel; So that my bonds in Christ are manifest in all the palace, and in all other [places] | Philippians 1: 12-13

Sooner could the ocean prove too little for a small fish or the sky be too small for a swallow than the grace of God prove insufficient for one of God’s people.

Not all their weaknesses, failures or sins can use it up.

~ Pastor Joe Terrell

Click here to listen to the message “Why Do Things Happen?”

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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: 4 October, 2020 | Previous post date: 2 February, 2021

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WHAT IS YOUR GROUND OF ASSURANCE?

“If a man die, shall he live again? all the days of my appointed time will I wait, till my change come. Thou shalt call, and I will answer thee: thou wilt have a desire to the work of thine hands. For now thou numberest my steps: dost thou not watch over my sin? My transgression is sealed up in a bag, and thou sewest up mine iniquity.” | Job 14: 14-17

To those who struggle with assurance, saying, “There are so many times that I do not feel saved,” I would remind you that, before you came to Christ, there were many times you did not feel lost!

Did your lack of ‘lost feeling’ at that time mean that you were not lost? Of course not! For feelings have nothing to do with whether or not we are lost. Do you not see that it is the same with respect to whether or not we are saved? Martin Luther said it well when he wrote: “For feelings come and feelings go and feelings are deceiving. My warrant is the Word of God naught else is worth believing.”

There it is!

God’s Word!

There is our foundation.

The Scriptures never instruct us to feel, but to believe. If you do not feel, believe anyway! It does not say, “For by grace are you saved through feelings.” Feelings are a look inward, at ourselves. Faith is a look outward at Christ. Feelings change because they look at a changing object – ourselves. Faith never changes, for it looks at an unchanging object – Christ!

May God grant you grace to look to Him.

~ Pastor Joe Terrell

Click here to listen to the message “If a Man Dies, Shall He Live?”

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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: 12 September, 2021 | Previous post date: n/a

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The Declaration of Dependence

“In God is my salvation and my glory: the rock of my strength, and my refuge, is in God.” | Psalm 62: 7

Sooner could the ocean prove too little for a small fish or the sky be too small for a swallow than the grace of God prove insufficient for one of God’s people.

Not all their weaknesses, failures or sins can use it up.

~ Pastor Joe Terrell

Click here to listen to the message “The Declaration of Dependence”

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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: 11 July, 2021 | Previous post date: n/a

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Our Righteousness Keeps Us Apart

“For this people’s heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed; lest at any time they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them. | Matthew 13: 15

There is not a sin upon you that the blood of Christ cannot wash clean.

There is not an offense that the gracious God cannot forgive.

The great obstacle that lies between you and God is not your sin so much as your righteousness! It is true that our sins have separated us from our God, but it is our righteousness that keeps us apart.

There is a remedy for sin in the gospel, so our sin is no hindrance to our salvation in Christ. However, our righteousness will keep us from simply receiving God’s grace in Christ; and that will prevent our being saved.

If you have not trusted the Lord Jesus to save your soul by His blood and righteousness, it is because you yet have hope in your own righteousness: either a righteousness you have already performed or one that you hope to perform in the future. How subtle is self-righteousness!

God grant you and me grace to see it for what it is and forsake it in favor of Christ who is our righteousness.

~ Pastor Joe Terrell

Click here to listen to the message “Who Do You Think I Am?”

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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: 18 May, 2012 | Previous post date: n/a | Danville, Kentucky