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A Plan Or A Purpose?

“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: 11

I hear many people talk about God having a plan for our lives.

I hear others speak of God having a plan of salvation.

The nature of the word “plan” subtly destroys the sovereignty of God and the helplessness of man.

God does not “plan” anything.

The sovereign God PURPOSES everything.

A plan (like a blueprint) is something that someone else can carry out and put into being.

Salvation is not God’s plan that man must make effectual by his obedience.

“The LORD of hosts hath sworn, saying, Surely as I have thought, so shall it come to pass; and as I have purposed, so shall it stand.” (Isaiah 14: 24)

Salvation is what God purposed to do for His people by the obedience and sacrifice of His Son and what Christ the Savior has fully accomplished for His people.

“Now I would not have you ignorant, brethren, that oftentimes I purposed to come unto you, (but was let hitherto,) that I might have some fruit among you also, even as among other Gentiles.” (Romans 1: 13)

A plan also may or may not come to pass. I have planned to do many things that I did not do.

Salvation is not God’s plan.

Salvation is the purpose of God for His people.

“For the Lord of hosts hath purposed, and who shall disannul it? and his hand is stretched out, and who shall turn it back?” (Isaiah 14: 27)

A purpose which God SHALL bring to pass.

~ Pastor Frank Tate

Click here to listen to the message “The Pillar and Ground of Truth”

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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: 17 May, 2020 | Previous post date: n/a

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The Way God Does Things

“Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto Thy name give glory, for Thy mercy, and for Thy Truth’s sake.” | Psalm 115: 1

The true test of whether the Gospel you trust in is THE GOSPEL can be answered by one simple question.

Does God get all the glory or does man?

The true Gospel ALWAYS glorifies God in the person and work of His Son!

God’s Gospel gives glory to His wisdom, His power, His mercy, His grace, His love and most importantly HIS SON!

A false gospel will always in some way credit something to man.

But the Word of God is clear that “No flesh should glory in His presence” (1 Corinthians 1: 29)

“That according as it is written, he that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord” (1 Corinthians 1: 31)

~ Pastor David Eddmenson

Click here to listen to the message “The Way God Does Things”

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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.

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God Delivers His People

“If we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is greater: for this is the witness of God which he hath testified of his Son. He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself: he that believeth not God hath made him a liar; because he believeth not the record that God gave of his Son.” | 1 John 5: 9-10

How blessedly God times His interventions.

He is never too early, and never too late.

It is the impatience of unbelief and the fretfulness of self-will which so often makes us think the Lord is tardy.

Often God “waits that He may be gracious” (Isaiah 30: 18) in order to bring us to the end of ourselves, and that the deliverance may more evidently appear to be from Himself.

At other times, He delays His intervention on behalf of His own for the greater chagrin and dismay of their enemies.

~ A.W. Pink

Click here to listen to the message “Appointed To Salvation”

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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.

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The Race That Is Set

”Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us,” | Hebrews 12: 1

Everything about the believer’s race is set by God.

Our Lord determined before the foundation of the world those whom he would put in this race when he chose his people in Christ. The love of God for his people is as eternal as God is. It existed before time; it shall exist when time is no more. The everlasting love of God in Christ Jesus gives the believer great cause for patiently running this race.

Our God set the precise moment he would cross our path with the gospel. He determined the pastor he would raise up, gave him the heart to trust Christ, and the unction to preach his word in truth and in spirit. In that hour of love he made Christ our Wisdom.

We beheld something of the righteous skill with which Christ Jesus honored and magnified God’s law on our behalf.

We beheld his faithfulness and graciousness in satisfying justice on our behalf. In the light of Christ we heard the law condemn our sins and our sins were more than we could bear. But the Spirit revealed in our hearts that all our sins have been forever put away by Christ’s one offering.

In love and power Christ was made our Perfection, our Completion, our Righteousness, our All. When we behold God’s all-powerful hand in all providence which brought us to Christ in spite of us, the believer finds great comfort in knowing that the God who provided and is our Righteousness will continue to be our Strength to run this race.

Our God set every hurdle on this course which we must run and declares plainly to us that we must suffer much tribulation in this race. Yet, the God who set the course also reveals in us that he is the God who supplies the grace. That is what he teaches us as he carries us through every dark vale.

Our God set the length of our course. He has appointed the hour our race will end. By his grace we will find the finish line to be the most glorious hour of all the hours of our lives for then we shall enter into the presence of Christ our Redeemer.

What a joy to know that our race ends where it began, in Christ our Lord.

~ Pastor Clay Curtis

Click here to listen to the message “According to Promise”

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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: 26 October, 2008 | Previous post date: n/a | Ewing, New Jersey

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Rest In Christ

”After this, Jesus knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the scripture might be fulfilled, saith, I thirst. Now there was set a vessel full of vinegar: and they filled a spunge with vinegar, and put it upon hyssop, and put it to his mouth. When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, he said, It is finished: and he bowed his head, and gave up the ghost.” | John 19: 28-30

“It Is Finished”

Every time I consider this passage, my mind focuses first on the word “IT.”

All that God required concerning the redemption of God’s sheep… all that the law demanded for justice and judgment against His people… every type and shadow of Christ in the Old Testament is included in “IT.”

And though this frail creature fails to grasp the fullness of “IT”, all was completed!

Everything God eternally willed, purposed, decreed, and ordained was FINISHED by Christ’s one sacrifice for sin. And the marvel of this blessed truth is summed up with the word “IS.”

That which He has done, He has done forever!

What a declaration of peace for a needy sinner from the mouth of the glorious Lamb of God.

~ Pastor Marvin Stalnaker

Click here to listen to the message “Rest In 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: 8 December, 2019 | Previous post date: n/a

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Always Remember

”Wherefore I will not be negligent to put you always in remembrance of these things, though ye know them, and be established in the present truth.” | 2 Peter 1: 12

As the Holy God: He is angry with the wicked everyday.

As the God of justice: He requires full satisfaction for our sin.

As the God of judgment: He will by no means clear the guilty.

As the God of truth: He must carry out His threatening of judgment.

As the God of love: He sent His beloved Son into the world.

As the God of grace: He made His beloved Son sin for us.

As the God of mercy: He gave us Christ’s perfect righteousness.

As the Sovereign God: He does all these things on purpose.

~ Pastor David Eddmenson

Click here to listen to the message “Growing In Grace”

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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 February, 2020 | Previous post date: n/a

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DOGS

”Then came she and worshipped him, saying, Lord, help me. But he answered and said, It is not meet to take the children’s bread, and to cast it to dogs. And she said, Truth, Lord: yet the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from their masters’ table.” | Matthew 15: 25-27

My wife and I have a little dog. We love that little dog.

That little dog serves no real purpose in life, she only desires to be the object of our affection.

She begs for food. Sometimes she has to be cleaned up after. She is totally dependent on us and without our constant care, she will die.

She is somewhat a liability. Yet, in spite of her liabilities, she brings us great joy.

She is always glad to see us when we return from being away.

She loves us dearly and desires to be with us every hour.

We go to great lengths to make sure every need of our dog is provided for. We see to it that she is treated with compassion and tender care. Regardless of all her endearing qualities, at the end of the day, she is still a dog.

She still acts like a dog. I think she enjoys being a dog. Many dogs in this world do not fare so well as our dog does.

From my perspective, being OUR dog is a wonderful privilege. I have seen other dogs that do not fare as well as our dog. It seems that the quality of a dog’s life depends on who their master is.

I rejoice greatly that I, the dog that I am, belong to that Master who constantly sees to it that I have all I need and yet much more.

My Master, the Lord Jesus Christ, requires only one thing from me in return.

What does He require of me?

Nothing but my love, adoration and worship of Him.

How wonderful and life sustaining it is to constantly eat of the crumbs that fall from His table.

Child of God, I like being my Master’s dog! Don’t you?

~ Pastor David Eddmenson

Click here to listen to the message “Even Dogs Get Crumbs”

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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: 31 October, 2021 | Previous post date: n/a | Rocky Mount, Virginia

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We Glory In Tribulations Also

”We glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience; And patience, experience; and experience, hope: And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.” | Romans 5: 3-5

Why would a believer glory in tribulations which cause us so much sorrow?

In the trial God sweetly forces us to trust Christ to save us and by doing so God makes us a little more patient to wait on Christ in the next trial.

Through patience, God proves to us more clearly that we have no strength and the grace of God is truly sufficient.

This is the perfect work James speaks of when he says let patience have her perfect work.

God sheds his love in our hearts by the Spirit and grows us in hope so that in the next trial we are a little less prone to put our hand to things below but instead “flee for refuge to lay hold upon the Hope set before us.”

This is why we thank God for the school of trial and affliction.

John Bunyan expressed this glorying when writing of his 12 years in prison, “I never had, in all my life, so great an insight into the Word of God as now; insomuch that I have often said, Were it lawful, I could pray for greater trouble, for the greater comforts’ sake.”

~ Pastor Clay Curtis

Click here to listen to the message “Five Reasons For Joy”

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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: 31 October, 2021 | Previous post date: n/a | Rocky Mount, Virginia

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It’s All According

“To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved. In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace;” | Ephesians 1: 6-7

Oh, The Wonder Of It!

When I think of the wonder, majesty, and glory of God, I can hardly believe that such a worm as I am should be called to be an heir of His grace.

Yet, it is just this vast difference that manifests the glory of His grace.

He who is the highest, the holiest, and the greatest has set His affection on the lowest, the most sinful, and weakest.

It is “to the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved, In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace.”

~ Pastor Darvin Pruitt

Click here to listen to the message “It’s All According”

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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: 24 October, 2021 | Previous post date: n/a

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The Lord God Will Come

“When the poor and the needy seek for water, and there is none, and their tongue faileth for thirst, I, the Lord will hear them; I, the God of Israel, will not forsake them. I will open rivers in dry places, and fountains in the midst of valleys.” | Isaiah 41: 17-18

The Lord sometimes, and perhaps not unfrequently, induces darkness, that His light may be more striking. He hedges up His people’s way with thorns, that the almighty hand, which removes them, may be more plainly seen.

Oh! it is blessed to be brought low, to be surrounded sometimes with difficulties, to see no way of escape, and all human resources fail, purposely that our extremity may be the Lord’s opportunity, and when we are most low, Jesus may be most exalted.

My soul, is it now even-tide in the soul, as it is eventide in the day? Art thou stripped, humbled, convinced of thy nothingness?

O look to all-precious, all-suitable Jesus.

Hear what the Lord saith: “At evening-time it shall be light.” (Zechariah 14: 7)

~ Robert Hawker

Click here to listen to the message “The Lord God Will Come”

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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: 27 September, 2020 | Previous post date: 18 February, 2021