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 I 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.” (I 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 “Faith, Not Of Yourselves”

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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: n/a | Ewing, New Jersey

He Hath Done Whatsoever He Hath Pleased

“Not unto us, O LORD, not unto us, but unto thy name give glory, for thy mercy, and for thy truth’s sake. Wherefore should the heathen say, Where is now their God? But our God is in the heavens: he hath done whatsoever he hath pleased.” | Psalm 115: 1-3

The gospel of God’s grace in Christ Jesus is not a thing to be proved, but truth to be believed.

It is not submitted to our reasoning powers as a subject for critical examination.

The gospel is a message from God, addressed to the conscience, feelings, and affections.

For this reason, men fond of arguing and proving everything by strictly logical deduction generally make very poor preachers.

In the Scriptures, God does not argue.

He proclaims!

~ J. C. Philpot

Click here to listen to the message “Our God is God and He will Bless Us”

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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: 20 June, 2021 | Previous post date: n/a

Election is Sovereign – “The Purpose of God”

“For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified.” | Romans 8: 29-30

The Bible reveals God to be sovereign in creation, providence, and salvation.

When men object to God’s sovereignty exercised in election, we do well to point them to the apostle’s words in Romans 9: 20-21, “Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to Him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus? Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honor, and another unto dishonor?”

Men have been told for so long that God is in their hands, it is no wonder that many are astonished to hear that the Bible says it is just the opposite.

~ Pastor David Pledger

Click here to listen to the message “Jehovah My Shepherd”

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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: 16 May, 2021 | Previous post date: n/a

Christ Our Hope

“Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the commandment of God our Saviour, and Lord Jesus Christ, which is our hope;” | 1 Timothy 1: 1

What is hope?

Hope is expectation with a reasonable basis.

What the world calls hope is an empty wish. It’s like a child holding a present on their birthday hoping to find what they want.

But, hope in the scriptures is defined as a person: Christ in you the hope of glory. This hope comes through a Godly persuasion, “…I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day.” (2 Timothy 1: 2)

Also, “For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 8: 38-39)

The believer’s hope is not ‘I hope, I hope, I hope.’ But it is hope founded upon the Lord Jesus Christ.

Our expectations fully depend on His appointments, His coming as the God man, His obedience, His suffering, His death, His resurrection, and His present reign in glory. “He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life.” (I John 5: 12) Paul said “he was an apostle of Jesus Christ by the commandment of God our Savior, and the Lord Jesus Christ, which is our hope. (1 Timothy 1: 1)

May the Lord be pleased to make Him our hope for the glory of His own name.

~ Pastor Darvin Pruitt

Click here to listen to the message “Crucified With 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.

Kingsport Sovereign Grace Church Bulletin Article date: 3 January, 2021 | Previous post date: n/a 7 January, 2021

His Resurrection and Our Regeneration

“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

The power of God that quickened us and made us to live spiritually is, in the Scriptures, compared with that power which raised Christ from the dead.

Christ died for our sins and was raised for our justification. (Romans 4: 25) We live because He lives; and we are free from sin because our Surety, who bore our sins, is now free from them. But there is a likeness between His resurrection and our regeneration and quickening. (Ephesians 1: 19-20)

1). His resurrection is called a begetting. He is the first-begotten from the dead. Our regeneration is called a begetting. (1 Peter 1: 3)

2). His human body was lifeless in the grave, as natural men are dead in sin and without spiritual life (Romans 5: 12)

3). His human body could not raise itself, as we cannot give ourselves life. (Romans 9: 13-16; James 1: 18)

4). His resurrection was the pure, unaided work of God, as is our regeneration. (Ephesians 2: 1)

5). His resurrection led to His exaltation at the right hand of God and is where, in our representative, Jesus Christ, we are already seated. (Ephesians 2: 6)

~ Pastor Henry T. Mahan

Click here to listen to the message “The Just Shall Live By 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.

Zebulon Grace Church Bulletin Article date: 20 June, 2021 | Previous post date: 1987 | Pikeville, Kentucky

“According to the Word of the Lord”

“And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.” | John 1: 14

Such phrasing is often found in the book of God (38 times in the Old Testament); it means exactly as it sounds.

That our great and glorious Sovereign does upon earth and in Heaven as He pleases, when He pleases and where He pleases.

What God has determined to do, that He shall do and this He does for His church, His bride, His elect children.

Never in time shall that come to pass what Jehovah has NOT deemed to be done or purposed.

So comforting is this to His dear children that they may, as they say, take it to the bank. Whether we are speaking about our Savior’s promises to us or His plain and simple words towards us or even His precious Substitutionary work of redemption on our behalf; it is all the same, that which is done, shall be done simply because: it is “according to the word of the Lord.”

Oh, may we remember this, dear ones, as we seek to honor Him as we sojourn here upon this earth; nothing about our God is fickle or hints at instability, only the potsherds of this world have such characteristics.

To God be the glory both now and forever more.

~ Pastor Drew Dietz

Click here to listen to the message “And God Said… And it Was So”

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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: 16 May, 2021 | Previous post date: n/a

An Important Question

“Deliver him from going down to the pit: I have found a ransom.” | Job 33: 24

There is one ransom that delivers men from the pit of hell. God found it or provided it in “giving His only begotten Son.”

The ransom is called “the righteousness of God.”

It is the absolute and perfect obedience of the Lord Jesus Christ to God’s holy law; obeying its precepts and suffering its penalty.

It is to that righteousness, to Christ that we must look and be saved. “Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is none else.”

It is upon that righteousness alone that we as believers must rest; and on that righteousness alone we must live, die, and appear before the righteous LORD God. (Isaiah 61: 10)

~ Pastor David Pledger

Click here to listen to the message “An Important Question”

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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: 3 January, 2021 | Previous post date: 5 January, 2021

No Sufficiency in Ourselves

“Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think any thing as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is of God;” | 2 Corinthians 3: 5

When will we sinners believe the Lord?

We will believe when the Lord makes us see we have nothing good in us but that Christ is All.

We will cast our care into the hand of the Lord when the Lord makes us see that we cannot provide for ourselves but that he careth for you.

We will be strong only when the Lord makes us know we are utterly weak but that Christ is all our strength.

This is so in things spiritual and temporal.

The LORD provides all.

We have no sufficiency in ourselves for anything.

~ Pastor Clay Curtis

Click here to listen to the message “To Whom Shall We Go?”

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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: n/a | Ewing, New Jersey

THE UNSPEAKABLE GIFT

“Thanks be unto God for his unspeakable gift.” | 2 Corinthians 9: 15

Paul wrote, “Thanks be unto God for His unspeakable gift.” God’s gift is unspeakable because the mere words of man can’t explain or adequately describe the gift He gives.

The lesson from this verse is simple.

If you possess this “unspeakable gift,” which is Christ Jesus, simply thank God for it.

~ Pastor David Eddmenson

Click here to listen to the message “I Was Glad When They Said”

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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 May, 2021 | Previous post date: n/a

“That Is The Problem”

“Now to him that is of power to stablish you according to my gospel, and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery, which was kept secret since the world began, But now is made manifest, and by the scriptures of the prophets, according to the commandment of the everlasting God, made known to all nations for the obedience of faith: To God only wise, be glory through Jesus Christ for ever. Amen.” | Romans 16: 25-27

A believer related a story to me about a discussion he had with another man (a very religious man) concerning the doctrine of election.

When the man disagreed with the doctrine of election, the believer told him to search the scriptures of which the man replied, “I don’t need to search the scriptures.” I replied, “That is his problem.”

People believe what they want to believe regardless of what the word of God teaches.

Most try to make the word of God fit what they believe instead of believing what it says.

The only warrant and foundation for all that we believe is the word of God.

~ Pastor John Chapman

Click here to listen to the message “What Have We Learned”

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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: 16 May, 2021 | Previous post date: n/a