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An Honest And Pure Heart

”Now the end of the commandment is charity out of a pure heart, and of a good conscience, and of faith unfeigned” | 1 Timothy 1: 5

Several times when I was growing up and had done something I was not supposed to have done or had failed to do something I was supposed to have done, and was trying to keep it hidden, my mom (whom I often thought was a mind reader!) would remind me of that old adage, “Honesty is always the best policy.”

And she was right.

In the kingdom of God, however, honesty is not merely the best policy, honesty is the only policy!

“A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh.” (Ezekiel 36: 26)

There is no place in the kingdom of God for pretense, deceitfulness, or hypocrisy.

“Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.” (Matthew 5: 8)

God gives those whom He saves a new heart, an honest heart. “But that on the good ground are they, which in an honest and good heart, having heard the word, keep it, and bring forth fruit with patience.” (Luke 8: 15)

“And we know that the Son of God is come, and hath given us an understanding, that we may know him that is true, and we are in him that is true, even in his Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God, and eternal life.” (1 John 5: 20)

Having been given a saving knowledge of God, the saints know this: “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)

“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.” (John 17: 2, 3)

They are conscious of the fact that their God knows their words before they speak them and their thoughts before they come to mind.

“O LORD, thou hast searched me, and known me. Thou knowest my downsitting and mine uprising, thou understandest my thought afar off. Thou compassest my path and my lying down, and art acquainted with all my ways. For there is not a word in my tongue, but, lo, O LORD, thou knowest it altogether.” (Psalm 139: 1-4)

Who would dare pretend or practice hypocrisy before such a God?

God’s people are honest before their God and with each other.

They are God-conscious people, and are not moved by the smiles or frowns of the world.

They are not trying to impress men, but seeking to please God. And “honesty is the only policy!”

~ Pastor Maurice Montgomery

Click here to listen to the message “Things That God’s People Know”

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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 June, 2018 | Previous post date: n/a

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The Blessed Man

”Blessed is the man whom thou choosest, and causest to approach unto thee, that he may dwell in thy courts: we shall be satisfied with the goodness of thy house, even of thy holy temple.” | Psalm 65: 4

David gives us two marks of a man truly blessed of God.

“Blessed is the man whom thou choosest, and causest to approach unto thee”.

First, a man who is blessed of God has been chosen by God unto salvation in divine election. Election is a great blessing for a sinful man because no one can do anything to deserve salvation.

“Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will,” (Ephesians 1: 5)

No one can do anything to get God to choose them. God elected sinners “according to the good pleasure of his will.”

Election is a great blessing because it is always undeserved.

Second, a man who is blessed of God has been caused to approach God by the irresistible call of the Holy Spirit.

“No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day.” (John 6: 44)

Man by nature does not have the ability to come to Christ unless God draws us to Christ.

“And ye will not come to me, that ye might have life.” (John 5: 40)

Man by nature also refuses to come to Christ for salvation.

No one deserves to be drawn to Christ since we have long refused Him. But what a blessing of God when He draws everyone He chose in divine election to Christ, the Savior of His people!

May God be pleased to make us blessed men and women!

~ Pastor Frank Tate

Click here to listen to the message “Blessed 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 April, 2018 | Previous post date: n/a

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Bless God And Rejoice In The Lord

“Saying, Blessed be the King that cometh in the name of the Lord: peace in heaven, and glory in the highest.” | Luke 19: 38

Let us learn to BLESS GOD!

Let us learn not only to be content but to REJOICE IN THE LORD! The word rejoice is used ten times in the epistle to the Philippians.

Let us learn the meaning of the word, not just in doctrine, but in experience.

There is always cause to rejoice in the Lord; in His BLOOD that cleanseth, His RIGHTEOUSNESS that perfects, His LOVE which never fails, His PROVIDENCE which works all things for our good, His INTERCESSION which is continual, and in the fact that our names are in the Book of Life; by His grace!

~ Pastor Henry Mahan

Click here to listen to the message “The King Cometh”

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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: 2 February, 2020 | Previous post date: 12 May, 2021

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Exceeding Abundantly Above

“Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us, Unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen.” | Ephesians 3: 20

A saved Gentile dog like myself desires only the crumbs that falls from my Master’s table.

Yet, my loving heavenly Father does “exceeding abundantly above” when He prepares for me a great banquet and allows me, like Mephibosheth, to eat at His table as one of the King’s sons.’

“Then said Ziba unto the king, According to all that my lord the king hath commanded his servant, so shall thy servant do. As for Mephibosheth, said the king, he shall eat at my table, as one of the king’s sons.” (2 Samuel 9: 11)

A rebellious, heart-changed prodigal like me, now desires only to be as one of my Father’s hired servants.

However, my gracious and forgiving Father says, “Bring forth the best robe, and put it on him; and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet: and bring hither the fatted calf, and kill it; and let us eat, and be merry.” (Luke 15: 22-23)

Child of God, how wonderful is it that our Father in heaven finds great pleasure in doing exceeding abundantly above ALL that we could think or ask?

~ Pastor David Eddmenson

Click here to listen to the message “Fear Not Everything Is Gonna Be Alright”

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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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I Think Myself Happy

”I think myself happy, king Agrippa, because I shall answer for myself this day before thee touching all the things whereof I am accused of the Jews:” | Acts 26: 2

When the apostle Paul stood before king Agrippa he had been in prison for two years. (Acts 24: 27)

The Lord now opens the door for Paul to declare the gospel unto both Festus the governor and Agrippa the king and he does so by first declaring that he was a happy man. Paul was saying that he was abundantly blessed of God. That is the reason even though in bondage he was rejoicing in the Lord. He writes to the Philippians from prison in Rome and says, “Rejoice in the Lord always and again I say, rejoice” (Philippians 4: 4)

That is the exact case of every believer.

“These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.” (John 16: 33)

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ: According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love: Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, 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: 3-7)

Consider what David says in the Psalms about those who are blessed of God:

“Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man unto whom the LORD imputeth not iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no guile.” (Psalm 32: 1-2)

“O taste and see that the LORD is good: blessed is the man that trusteth in him.” (Psalm 34: 8)

“Blessed is the man whom thou choosest, and causest to approach unto thee.” (Psalm 65: 4)

“Blessed is the man whose strength is in thee; in whose heart are the ways of them.” (Psalm 84: 5)

Even though we live in this body of sin and in the bondage of death and are plagued by many trials, heartaches and much grief, we should always consider our case to be the same as Paul: “I think myself happy.”

Believers are abundantly blessed in Christ above all people of the earth and have every reason to rejoice in the Lord Jesus Christ and be of good cheer.

~ Pastor Tom Harding

Click here to listen to the message “To This Poor Man Will The Lord Look”

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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: 7 November, 2021 | Previous post date: n/a

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Forgiven, Covered, Not Imputed

”Even as David also describeth the blessedness of the man, unto whom God imputeth righteousness without works, Saying, Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin” | Romans 4: 6-8

Paul does not say that David said, ‘blessed is the man unto whom God imputeth righteousness without works’, but that he ‘describeth’ the blessedness of the same man.

He describes that blessedness in a little different language. Paul describes this blessedness in its positive aspect, David in the negative. Paul said God imputed something, David said God did not impute something.

Both are speaking of the same man. The absence of the one is the affirmation of the other.

If your sins are gone, you are righteous, but there is more to this righteousness imputed to us than just the absence of sin. If God just wiped the slate clean, we would mar it again before you could say “clean.” Nor is this just a perpetual wiping of the slate clean. We not only are sinless, but we positively have a righteousness that is ours, which is the very righteousness of God, “Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference:” (Romans 3: 22) the righteousness of Christ, “the Lord our righteousness.”

What do you mean we ‘have’ a righteousness?

Well, the word imputed is much misused and bandied about to make way for all sorts of wrong thinking. Here is how to clear up all of the wrong thinking about imputed righteousness: stop thinking (and saying) that when something is true in the sight of God, it is yet somehow not true. Imputation is not God seeing something differently than it actually is! Lose that thinking and rejoice! If God considers me righteous, it is because He has made me the righteousness of God in Him Who was made sin for me. “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)

It is not complicated, just unfathomable. Do not add to or butcher God’s word in an attempt to understand or explain it.

If God says it is so, believe and rejoice.

But, Chris, you are sinful and wretched. According to who? Who said so?

Paul challenges anyone to say so: “Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God’s elect? It is God that justifieth” (Romans 8: 33) Whoever raises a charge of sin against me, (my conscience, my enemies, whoever) is flying in the face of God.

Is this a naïve blindness to my present condition in the flesh?

No, it is simply walking by faith, not by sight.

We are sometimes like Elisha’s servant who saw only the enemies and a seemingly hopeless situation. Elisha prayed, “LORD, I pray thee, open his eyes, that he may see” (2 Kings 6: 17) If God would but open my eyes to see His precious, substitutionary, sin-atoning blood shed for me, then I will see the reality of the matter.

My sins are gone. Elisha’s servant did not see a mirage, but a vision of the true, a glimpse of reality.

The enemies did not disappear when his eyes were opened, but he saw them overwhelmed by the armies of Heaven. My present sinful condition is still visible to me, but where sin abounded, grace has much more abounded. And it is not ‘as though’ Christ put my sin away and became my Righteousness. It is that He ‘d i d s o.’

Now, God says I am sinless and righteous in Christ, and I say “Let God be true, and every man a liar.”

Postscript:

In Romans 4: 7 the word “covered” is used in regard to our sin.

Many words are used in scripture to describe how God has dealt with His people’s sin in Christ. Some have used this word “covered” as a way to explain the false idea that no sin was put away, redeemed, in any sense, until the time that Christ died on the cross. It is said that “cover” means to somehow sweep it under the rug until Christ died for it.

There is an obvious problem with this since our text says that whoever’s sins are covered, also have the righteousness of Christ imputed to them, sin is not imputed to them and that their iniquities are forgiven. Sin that is covered from God’s sight is gone! Not deferred until a future reckoning. David described this blessedness long before our Saviour came and died.

In David’s day, as now, blessed is the man who is forgiven by God because of the eternal redemption of Christ for His people of all ages. Christ’s blood was shed in time, but His cross-work is an eternal work.

~ Pastor Chris Cunningham

Click here to listen to the message “Who Then Can Be Saved” 7

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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: 24 June, 2007 | Previous post date: n/a | Danville, Kentuky

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I Think Myself Happy

”I think myself happy, king Agrippa, because I shall answer for myself this day before thee touching all the things whereof I am accused of the Jews” | Acts 26: 2

When the apostle Paul stood before king Agrippa he had been in prison for two years. (Acts 24: 27)

The Lord now opens the door for Paul to declare the gospel unto both Festus the governor and Agrippa the king and he does so by first declaring that he was a happy man. Paul was saying that he was abundantly blessed of God. That is the reason even though in bondage he was rejoicing in the Lord. He writes to the Philippians from prison in Rome and says, “Rejoice in the Lord always and again I say, rejoice” (Philippians 4: 4)

That is the exact case of every believer.

Even though we live in this body of sin and in the bondage of death and are plagued by many trials, heartaches and much grief, we should always consider our case to be the same as Paul: “I think myself happy.”

“These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.” (John 16: 33)

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ: According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love: Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, 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: 3-7)

Consider what David says in the Psalms about those who are blessed of God:

“Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man unto whom the LORD imputeth not iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no guile.” (Psalm 32: 1-2)

“O taste and see that the LORD is good: blessed is the man that trusteth in him.” (Psalm 34: 8)

“Blessed is the man whom thou choosest, and causest to approach unto thee.” (Psalm 65: 4)

“Blessed is the man whose strength is in thee; in whose heart are the ways of them.” (Psalm 84: 5)

Believers are abundantly blessed in Christ above all people of the earth and have every reason to rejoice in the Lord Jesus Christ and be of good cheer.

-Pastor Tom Harding

Click here to listen to the message “Christ Our Necessary Substitute”

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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: 7 November, 2021 | Previous post date: n/a

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God’s People Are Blessed Above All People

”Blessed is the people that know the joyful sound: they shall walk, O LORD, in the light of thy countenance” | Psalm 89: 15

This Psalm declares in such a plain and powerful way all the covenant promises made with the Lord Jesus Christ that are eternal and certain.

Many commentators of scripture have called this Psalm, “The glorious covenant Psalm” and truly it is. We read about covenant mercies, covenant faithfulness of the Surety, the covenant God Who rules overall and the promise to the covenant seed being established forever in Christ Jesus. (Psalm 89: 4, 29, 36) He is a covenant God, therefore His covenant people must be blessed. (Ephesians 1: 3) God gives us this glorious description of His people in verses 15, 16, 17, 18 of this Psalm.

1). They know “the joyful sound of the gospel.” (Psalm 89: 15) The sheep of Christ know the effectual voice of the Great Shepherd and they delight to follow Him. (John 10: 27-30) It is the sound of victory over sin through His blood. It is the sound of love, peace and pardon in and through Christ Jesus. (Ephesians 1: 6)

2). “They shall walk in the light of His countenance.” (Psalm 89: 15) Their darkened heart has been illuminated through the preaching of the gospel and the quickening of the Holy Spirit to see the beauty, glory and necessity of their great Redeemer and King. (2 Corinthians 4: 6)

3). “They shall rejoice in His name all the day.” (Psalm 89: 16) Believers have every reason to rejoice in Christ alone and have no confidence in the flesh. (Philipians 3: 3) They have been redeemed, justified and exalted in His name. (Acts 4: 12)

4). They shall be exalted in His righteousness. (Psalm 89: 16) The perfect righteousness that Jesus Christ worked out for His elect has been freely, eternally and fully imputed to them that believe. (Romans 4: 6) Christ Jesus is the Lord our Righteousness. (Jerimiah 23: 5; Philipians 3: 7-9)

5). The Lord Jesus Christ is “our glory and strength.” (Psalm 89: 17) Without Him we can do nothing and know nothing. (John 15: 5) Any spiritual strength or spiritual knowledge that we enjoy and experience must be because of His grace worked within us. (Philipians 1: 6; Philipians 4:13; Colossians 1: 27)

6). “The Lord is our defense.” (Psalm 89: 18) We are unable to defend ourselves against our spiritual enemies, there are too many of them and they are too powerful for us even to begin to fight. However, our Lord stood face to face with all our enemies and won the glorious victory for us. (Psalm 98: 1) He defeated sin by making atonement for it. (Hebrews 9: 26) He honored the law for us. (Galatians 3: 13; Colossians 2: 14-15) He defeated Satan by crushing his dominion and power. (Hebrews 2: 14) He defeated death by raising Himself from the dead. (Revelation 1: 18)

~ Pastor Tom Harding

Click here to listen to the message “Are You A Thirsty Sinner?”

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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: 26 December, 2021 | Previous post date: n/a | Pikeville, Kentucky