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I Kill And I Make Alive

”See now that I, even I, am he, and there is no god with me: I kill, and I make alive; I wound, and I heal: neither is there any that can deliver out of my hand.” | Deuteronomy 32: 39

THERE is no greater comfort for the believer than this. This blessed truth will deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage “And deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.” (Hebrews 2: 15)

Our Lord is the Author (giver) of this life and the Finisher (taker) of it.

God tells us this about man: “Seeing his days are determined, the number of his months are with thee, thou hast appointed his bounds that he cannot pass” (Job 14: 5)

The bounds He has set for us are the place, the time, and the instrument of our death to this world. The day, the hour, the moment, the means of our passing is set by the Lord. Though it may be sickness, old-age, bullet, sword, car-wreck… no matter; God determined it for each of us before the world began.

“I Kill”, saith the Lord. What a comfort that is.

Our God in His wisdom, takes us in His good time, according to His will and pleasure. We are immortal until it’s our time.

There is nothing and no-one to fear.

The Lord encourages every believer in this, saying: “Thou shalt not be afraid for the terror by night; nor for the arrow that flieth by day;” (Psalm 91: 5)

Let the unbelievers of the world fear terrorists; but let the people of God fear no one but God. “Nor for the pestilence that walketh in darkness; nor for the destruction that wasteth at noonday. A thousand shall fall at thy side, and ten thousand at thy right hand; but it shall not come nigh thee.” (Psalm 91: 6-7) This is God’s command to His people: ‘Fear not!… Thou shalt not be afraid.’

We wouldn’t be flesh and blood if we had no fears, but too much fear and worry dishonors our God and leaves us in distress and anxiety. Rest in this thought: the Lord gave us this life as it pleased Him and the Lord will take it when He pleases.

I had my old dog put down the other day and personally buried his body. Though I had another give him the injection that put him to sleep, I was the one who determined it. It was completely my decision. I was his master. He was my dog. I was the one who chose him as a pup, picking him out of all the rest, purchased him, brought him home, fed him, nurtured him, taught him, loved him. He was my dog. No-one knew him as I did. I knew when it was time and I gave the command. So it is with our Master.

Our Lord and Master chose His people before the world began, brought them into this world, led, fed, taught, bought and cared for them all the days of their lives. And in His good time… He puts them to sleep.

There is no death for those in Christ. He takes them home.

What peace there is in believing that our kind Master in His infinite wisdom and eternal purpose wounds and heals, kills and makes alive.

~ Pastor Paul Mahan

Click here to listen to the message “The Words of The Preacher”

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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: 6 April, 2014 | Previous post date: n/a | Rocky Mount, Virginia

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Greater Things Hereafter

”Jesus answered and said unto him, Because I said unto thee, I saw thee under the fig tree, believest thou? thou shalt see greater things than these. And he saith unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Hereafter ye shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man.” | John 1: 50-51

Isaiah said, “I saw also the Lord…” “In the year that king Uzziah died I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple.” (Isaiah 6: 1)

Sinners only see the Lord through faith by revelation from God. “For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith.” (Romans 1: 16-17)

John tells us it was the glory of Christ the Lord which Isaiah saw. (John 12: 36-41)

The glory of Christ which Isaiah saw is the glory which sinners are brought by grace to behold through faith.

How did Isaiah describe his glory?

1. Sitting. The Lord Jesus Christ finished the work given him by the Father before the world began. He fulfilled all prophecy concerning him, he honored and magnified the law of God as the Representative of his people in righteous obedience; as their Substitute as God’s Lamb he laid down his life that they might become dead to the law. He cried, “It is finished.” When he had by himself purged our sins, he sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high. “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” (Hebrews 1: 3)

2. Upon a throne. Isaiah saw Jesus Christ as he is, the Living Lord. He is LORD of lords AND KING of kings. He reigns with God the Father from his heavenly throne “To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne.” (Revelation 3: 21)

3. High. Isaiah beheld who the Lord Jesus is. Christ Jesus is THE SON OF GOD. The child born, is also a Son given, also the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace. He is indeed the great I AM which was before Abraham. If we are going to be brought low, we must first behold him HIGH. Our Savior is God Almighty.

4. Lifted up. We must see that God the Father is well-pleased with him and that, by God the Father he was and is lifted up. He is the preeminent Captain, the Author and Pioneer of faith, the Faithful One, he faithfully obeyed and gave himself to be lifted upon the cross and God the Father is well-pleased; God the Father lifted him up glorified in heaven “And declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead” (Romans 1: 4)

“For he received from God the Father honour and glory, when there came such a voice to him from the excellent glory, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” (2 Peter 1: 17)

5. His train filled the temple. His train signifies his dominion and glory as our King Priest. Isaiah beheld that his dominion reaches not just around his throne but fills his whole temple in heaven and earth. He reigns in the midst of his church.

May the Holy Spirit be pleased to reveal in us the glory of God in the face of Christ Jesus.

~ Pastor Clay Curtis

Click here to listen to the message “Greater Things Hereafter”

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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: 9 November, 2008 | Previous post date: n/a | Ewing, New Jersey

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Words About Our Faith

“O keep my soul, and deliver me: let me not be ashamed; for I put my trust in thee.” | Psalm 25: 20

Strange to say, the faith of Christians is a PERSON.

You may ask all other religions wherein their faith lieth, and they cannot answer on this wise.

Our faith is a PERSON; the gospel that we have to preach is a PERSON, and go wherever you may, we have something solid and tangible to preach.

If you had asked the twelve apostles, in their day, “What do you believe in?” They would not have needed to go round about with a long reply, but they would have pointed to their Master and they would have said, “We believe in HIM.”

“But what are your doctrines?”

“There they stand INCARNATE.”

“But what is your practice?”

“HE is our example.”

“What, then, do you believe?”

Hear ye the glorious answer of the apostle Paul, “We preach Christ crucified.”

Our creed, our body of divinity, our whole theology is summed up in the PERSON OF JESUS CHRIST.

The apostle preached doctrine, but the doctrine was Christ.

He preached practice but the practice was all in Christ.

There is no summary of the faith of a Christian that can compass all he believes, except that word – CHRIST; and that is the Alpha and Omega of our creed, that is the first and last rule of our practice – Christ, and Him crucified.

To spread the faith, then, is to spread the knowledge of Christ crucified; it is in fact, to bring men, through the agency of God’s Spirit, to feel their need of Christ, to seek Christ, to believe in Christ, to love Christ, and then to live for Christ.

~ Charles H. Spurgeon

Click here to listen to the message “O Keep My Soul!”

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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 May, 2020 | Previous post date: n/a

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God’s Election

“But we are bound to give thanks alway to God for you, brethren beloved of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth:” | 2 Thessalonians 2: 13

Knowing something of the wickedness of my own heart…

Knowing that I would have never come to the Christ of the scripture on my own…

Knowing that I would have chosen destruction, and loved darkness more than the salvation and light of life with Christ…

That makes God’s election to be the sweetest, kindest, most loving thing I have ever heard in my life.

~ Pastor Gabe Stalnaker

Click here to listen to the message “There Is Only One Hope For 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: 26 January, 2020 | Previous post date: 28 April, 2021

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It Pleased The Lord Through Preaching

”Now there were in the church that was at Antioch certain prophets and teachers; as Barnabas, and Simeon that was called Niger, and Lucius of Cyrene, and Manaen, which had been brought up with Herod the tetrarch, and Saul. As they ministered to the Lord, and fasted, the Holy Ghost said, Separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them. And when they had fasted and prayed, and laid their hands on them, they sent them away.” | Acts 13: 1-3

In this text, we have the account of how the Lord faithfully sent forth Barnabas and Saul to the Gentile world.

God has an elect people whom he has determined to save OUT OF all corners and people of this world in Christ Jesus.

This was the Lord’s word to Abraham: “In blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea shore; and thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies; And in thy seed” (Christ the Seed) ‘shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; because thou hast obeyed my voice.” (Genesis 22: 17-18)

The gospel of Christ the Seed was preached to Abraham: “Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ.” (Galatians 3: 16)

“And the scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith, preached before the gospel unto Abraham, saying, In thee shall all nations be blessed. So then they which be of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham.” (Galatians 3: 8, 9)

This same gospel shall be preached to all God’s elect scattered throughout the entire world.

God uses his church to do so.

The very wisdom of God which chose his people in Christ, the very wisdom which accomplished the work whereby mercy and peace have met in harmony in Christ our Substitute, is the same wisdom of God which chose that the instrument he would use to proclaim his gospel would be his church in this world. The believer — who is perfectly complete in Christ to enter glory right now – remains in this world because God choose to use saved sinners to carry his gospel to his elect and save them through the gospel of our glorified Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

“For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe.” (1 Corinthians 1: 21)

Just as the work of election, of redemption, and of regeneration is the work of our triune God even so the work of raising up and equipping his vessels of mercy is the work of our Lord. God’s ambassadors’ are called of God; God gives his saints a heart to recognize his messengers and to support them in God’s work; God separates them to the work he would have them to do; God’s messengers are filled and led by the Spirit of God.

Thus they go forth preaching the gospel of Christ and him crucified.

~ Pastor Clay Curtis

Click here to listen to the message “Consider 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.

Sovereign Grace Baptist Church Bulletin Article date: 26 October, 2008 | Previous post date: n/a | Ewing, New Jersey

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The Purpose Of God

“And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. 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: 28-30

We believe, according to the scriptures, that the Lord our God is a God of purpose, absolute and unalterable purpose. (Romans 9: 11-26)

Before the world began, Almighty God sovereignly purposed all that ever comes to pass in time.

Nothing in this world is left to chance.

Everything is moving toward the predetermined end of God’s eternal purpose with absolute, precise accuracy.

Even a casual reader of Holy Scripture has to face this fact: The God of the Bible is a God of purpose.

The Triune Jehovah is a God of purpose, and clearly teaches us several things about the purpose of God:

“O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out!For who hath known the mind of the Lord? or who hath been his counsellor?Or who hath first given to him, and it shall be recompensed unto him again? For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things: to whom be glory for ever. Amen.” (Romans 11: 33-36)

The purpose of God is eternal. (Ephesians 1: 3-14)

The purpose of God includes all things. “According to the eternal purpose which he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord:” (Ephesians 3: 11)

The purpose of God has for its peculiar design the everlasting benefit of God’s elect. Everything that God has purposed is for the ultimate, spiritual, and eternal benefit of his covenant people. “Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began,” (2 Timothy 1: 9)

The purpose of God is immutable and sure. The Lord himself says, “My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure.” (Isaiah 46: 10)

And in its ultimate end, God’s purpose will accomplish the eternal salvation of his chosen people and the glory of his own great name.

~ Pastor Don Fortner

Click here to listen to the message “The Simplicity That Is In Christ”

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Visit our primary website at www.ksgctn.org for more information about Kingsport Sovereign Grace Church, our livestream (when available) and previously recorded messages.

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The Lord Jesus Christ Is The Issue

“The eyes of the LORD are upon the righteous, and his ears are open unto their cry.” | Psalm 34: 15

A child of God should never feel forgotten because the eyes of the Lord are always upon the righteous.

Our circumstances have not escaped His notice.

He knows our circumstance because He has ordained it according to His eternal purpose and will.

A child of God should also be comforted to remember that the ears of our heavenly Father are always open to the cries of His children.

Not only does our Father hear the cries of His children but He tells us that we “ought always to pray, and not to faint” (Luke 18: 1)

What comfort to know that the Lord sees His people and will always hear their prayer.

~ Pastor Frank Tate

Click here to listen to the message “A Prayer for Deliverance”

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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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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.”

“I will greatly rejoice in the LORD, my soul shall be joyful in my God; for he hath clothed me with the garments of salvation, he hath covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decketh himself with ornaments, and as a bride adorneth herself with her jewels.” (Isaiah 61: 10)

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.

~ 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.

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Children Of Light Walking In A Dark World

“See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, Redeeming the time, because the days are evil. Wherefore be ye not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is.” | Ephesians 5: 15-17

There is hope for thee.

God has prepared a salvation for His elect, chosen by Him not because of any goodness in them, but because He will have mercy on whom He will have mercy, and will have compassion on whom He will have compassion.

Is this not a salvation that will suit thee, O poor sinner?

If God had chosen them out of any merit, or if that choice depended on anything which men did or could do, thou wert a damned soul, for thou hast no goodness, and thou canst do nothing.

If God’s election comes to those who are without merit, without hope, without strength, there is hope for thee

~ C.H. Spurgeon

Click here to listen to the message “Children of Light Walking in a Dark World”

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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’s Election

“But we are bound to give thanks alway to God for you, brethren beloved of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth:” | 2 Thessalonians 2: 13

Knowing something of the wickedness of my own heart…

Knowing that I would have never come to the Christ of the scripture on my own…

Knowing that I would have chosen destruction, and loved darkness more than the salvation and light of life with Christ…

That makes God’s election to be the sweetest, kindest, most loving thing I have ever heard in my life.

~ Pastor Gabe Stalnaker

Click here to listen to the message “There Is Only One Hope For 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: 26 January, 2020 | Previous post date: 28 April, 2021